Transcriptome profile of ACE-expressing embryonic endothelial cells

During embryonic development, blood cells emerge from a subset of specialized endothelial cells, named hemogenic endothelial cells (HECs) via a process known as endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition (EHT). A more thorough characterization of HECs is essential to guide the efforts to derive this population from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), a critical step to generate therapeutic blood products in vitro. To identify specific human HEC markers, we performed transcriptomic analysis of 28-32-day human embryos, a developmental stage characterized by active EHT. Overall design: Analysis of gene expression profile of 4 (CD34+CD45-ACE+) samples vs (CD34+CD45-ACE-) in 4 embryos staged between day 28 and 32 from the aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) region.