circRNome of human pluripotent stem cells

Induction of pluripotency in somatic cells needs the full activation of the pluripotency gene regulatory network (PGRN). The core transcription factors of the PGRN establish a crosstalk with specific micro RNA (miRNA) families to sustain the pluripotent program and govern cell fate decisions. Very recently, circular RNA (circRNA) have been proposed as novel players in the regulation of this molecular circuitry. Herein, we successfully generated human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) by zero-footprint reprogramming of cord blood mesenchymal stem cells. The hiPSC were extensively characterized for stemness and tri-lineage differentiation potential compared to human embryonic stem cells and parental unreprogrammed cells to assess complete acquisition of the pluripotent identity. High-throughput array-based molecular analyses of messenger RNA (mRNA) (631 genes), miRNA (754 miRNA) and, for the first time, circRNA (13,617 circRNA) were performed to address the role of circRNA in the PGRN. As a result, a circRNA-guided map of miRNA and mRNA associated to naïve and primed pluripotent identity is provided. One sample (human cord blood mesenchymal stem cells reprogrammed to pluripotency) to be compared with GSE122178 (reference of unreprogrammed human cord blood mesenchymal stem cells)