Marked differences in differentiation propensity among human embryonic stem cell lines.

Osafune, Kenji; Caron, Leslie; Borowiak, Malgorzata; Martinez, Rita J; Fitz-Gerald, Claire S; Sato, Yasunori; Cowan, Chad A; Chien, Kenneth R et al. · Nat Biotechnol · 2008

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The differentiation potential of 17 human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines was compared. Some lines exhibit a marked propensity to differentiate into specific lineages, often with >100-fold differences in lineage-specific gene expression. For example, HUES 8 is best for pancreatic differentiation and HUES 3 for cardiomyocyte generation. These non-trivial differences in developmental potential among hES cell lines point to the importance of screening and deriving lines for lineage-specific differentiation.

Medical subject headings