Isolation and Characterisation of Renal Precursor Cells Derived from Human Embryonic Stem Cells

HES4 hESC were cultured in serum media and maintained on a layer of mouse embryonic fibroblast feeder cells at a density of 6 x 104 cells/cm2. For differentiation: hESC were differentiated for a total of 14 days. Differentiation was induced by passaging 4 human ES cell pieces onto 12 well plates seeded with 0.67 x 10E4 cells/cm2. Cells were maintained in media containing 20% FCS for 2 days before media containing 5% FCS was used. Reduced serum media was changed every second day for the remaining 12 days ESC cells were taken at time zero and RNA was isolated (hESC_undiff). Cells differentiated by the above procedure at day 14 were isolated and RNA extracted (Diff). The remaining cells were FACs sorted with antibodies to Podocalyxin, CD24 and GCTM-2. Two populations were isolated, 1: Positive for podocalyxin and CD24 and low level of expression of GCTM-2 (POD+CD24+GCTM2Low) and 2: Positive for podocalyxin and CD24 and negative for GCTM-2 (POD+CD24+GCTM2Neg). The experiment was repeated in triplicate. The final aim was to determine the gene expression enrichment in cells with the marker profile (Podocalyxin+, CD24+, GCTM-2-neg) which is predicted to be enriched for kidney precursors. Keywords: cell type comparison Three consecutive passages of HES4 cells were grown in standard conditions, RNA derived or differentiated for 14 days subject to FACs sorting, collection and RNA isolated. Microarray was performed on a total of 12 samples, (3 replicates of 4 populations).