Genome-wide transcriptome analysis reveals Embryonic-Stem Cell derived tenocytes resemble fetal, not adult, tenocytes

Purpose:- RNA sequencing was performed on adult, fetal and embryonic stem-cell derived equine tenocytes cultured in 3D to look at which had more similar gene expression profiles. Results:- 6,190 genes were significantly differentially expressed (DE) across the three lines of fetal, adult and ESC-tenocytes (logFC ± 2, padj <0.01). 542 of these were DE between adult and fetal tenocytes, 2,708 between fetal and ESC-tenocytes and 2,940 between adult and ESC-tenocytes. Genes which were DE between adult and fetal tenocytes were significanlty involved in cell migration and motility. Genes which were DE between the ESC-tenocytes and both adult and fetal tenocytes were in organism process and development. Overall design: Methods:- mRNA profiles of three independent lines of adult, fetal and ESC derived tenocytes were generated by RNA sequencing, using Illumina NovaSeq6000 and Illumina HiSeq2500. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed using the pseudoaligner Salmon and differential expression quantified using DESeq2, with batch correction applied. Gene ontology analysis was then conducted using Panther GoSlim.