The global transcriptome analysis in the time course of hESC-derived cardiac differentiation

We analyzed the global transcriptome signature over the time course of the cardiac differentiation from hESC by RNA-seq. We characterized the genome-wide transcriptome profile of 5 distinct stages; undifferentiated hESC (day 0), mesodermal precursor stage (hMP, day 2), cardiac progenitor stage (hCP, day 5), immature cardiomyocyte (hCM14) and hESC-CMS differentiated for 14 additional days (hCM28). While the stem cell signature decreases over the five stages, the signatures associated with heart and smooth muscle development increase, indicating the efficient cardiac differentiation of our protocol.

本研究通过RNA测序（RNA-seq），分析了人类胚胎干细胞（human embryonic stem cell, hESC）心肌分化时序中的全转录组表达特征。我们对5个明确的分化阶段的全基因组转录组谱进行了表征：未分化hESC（第0天）、中胚层前体阶段（mesodermal precursor stage, hMP，第2天）、心脏祖细胞阶段（cardiac progenitor stage, hCP，第5天）、未成熟心肌细胞（immature cardiomyocyte, hCM14），以及额外分化14天的hESC-CMS（hCM28）。随着5个分化阶段的推进，干细胞相关表达特征逐渐下调，而与心脏及平滑肌发育相关的表达特征则逐步上调，这表明本研究所用的分化方案可实现高效的心肌细胞分化。