SmartSeq2 analysis of chemically-defined MiPs with and without valproic acid treatment

We have optimized a protocol to generate chemically defined induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesodermal progenitors. We demonstrate that these cells contribute to myotube formation that can be improved by the addition of valproic acid. Thanks to SmartSeq2 single cell RNAseq, we show that valproic acid treatment increase the number of myogenic progenitors. We also used gene set enrichment analysis to annotate the clusters further with correlations to the ARCHS4 Tissues database. In particular, we found that the gene expression profile of the VPA-treated single cell cluster correlated more to myoblasts compared to the untreated cells. Some key myogenic genes found to be differentially expressed were DESMIN and CD82, which were upregulated upon VPA supplementation. SmartSeq2 single cell analysis of human chemically-defined MiPs with and without valproic acid treatment