EMT blockage is required for mouse nave pluripotent stem cell derivation

Pluripotency is the differentiation capacity of particular cells exhibited in the early embryo in vivo and embryonic stem (ES) cells have been shown to originate from the inner cell mass (ICM) of an E3.5 blastocyst. Although the potential for ES cells to differentiate into the three germ layers is equated to ICM cells, they differ in the ability to maintain the capacity for self-renewal. Despite several studies on the maintenance of ES cells in the ground state of pluripotency, the precise mechanism of conversion from the ICM to the ES cell remains unclear. Here , we have examined the cell characteristics and expression profile within the intermediate stages of ES cell derivation from the ICM. Gene clustering and ontology (GO) analyses showed a significant change in the expression of epigenetic modifiers and DNA methylation-related genes in the intermediate stages. We have proposed that an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) blockage is required during derivation of mouse ES cells from E3.5 blastocysts. This study suggests a novel mechanistic insight into ES cell derivation and provides a time-course transcriptome profiling resource for the dissection of gene regulatory networks that underlie the transition from ICM to ES cells.

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Totonchi M, Hassani SN, Sharifi-Zarchi A, Tapia N, Adachi K, Arand J, Greber B, Sabour D, Araúzo-Bravo MJ, Walter J, Pakzad M, Gourabi H, Schöler HR, Baharvand H