PEAR1 is a potential regulator of early hematopoiesis of human pluripotent stem cells

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) provide a potential resource for the generation of functional blood cells in vitro. However, it remains largely unknown about the mechanism underlying hPSC-derived hematopoiesis. Here, we identified platelet endothelial aggregation receptor-1 (PEAR1) as a potential regulator of early hematopoietic development of hPSCs. We found that the expression of PEAR1 was gradually increased during endothelial and hematopoietic development. The hematopoietic potential was enriched in PEAR1+ population and PEAR1 could be used as a potential marker to enrich hemogenic endothelium. Moreover, knockout of PEAR1 impaired the hematopoietic potential of hPSCs. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that PEAR1 is required for early hematopoiesis and can be potentially used for establishing new strategies to produce more functional blood cells from hPSCs. 1.We performed bulk-RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of the PEAR1+ population and the PEAR1- population on Day5, to gain more molecular insights into the effect of PEAR1 on early hematopoietic development. 2. We performed RNA-seq analysis of the Day 5 cells differentiated from BC1-PKO or BC1, to compare the molecular changes of PEAR1 knockout in hematopoiesis