Chromatin Structure and Gene Expression Programs of Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (Affymetrix). Homo sapiens

Knowledge of both the global chromatin structure and the gene expression programs of human embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells should provide a robust means to assess whether the genomes of these cells have similar pluripotent states. Recent studies have suggested that ES and iPS cells represent different pluripotent states with substantially different gene expression profiles. We describe here a comparison of global chromatin structure and gene expression data for a panel of human ES and iPS cells. Genome-wide maps of nucleosomes with histone H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 modifications indicate that there is little difference between ES and iPS cells with respect to these marks. Gene expression profiles confirm that the transcriptional programs of ES and iPS cells show very few consistent differences. Although some variation in chromatin structure and gene expression was observed in these cell lines, these variations did not serve to distinguish ES from iPS cells. Overall design: Examination of gene expression in 7 human ES cell lines, 8 human iPS cell lines, and 2 fibroblast cell line2.

解析人类胚胎干细胞（human embryonic stem cells，ES细胞）与诱导多能干细胞（induced pluripotent stem cells，iPS细胞）的全局染色质结构及基因表达程序，可为评估这两类细胞的基因组是否具备相似多能性状态提供可靠依据。既往研究曾提出，ES细胞与iPS细胞代表不同的多能性状态，二者基因表达谱存在显著差异。本研究针对一组人类ES细胞与iPS细胞的全局染色质结构及基因表达数据展开对比分析。针对携带组蛋白H3K4me3与H3K27me3修饰的核小体所绘制的全基因组图谱显示，ES细胞与iPS细胞在这类修饰标记上几乎无差异。基因表达谱分析进一步证实，两类细胞的转录程序仅存在极少的一致性差异。尽管本研究涉及的各细胞系中，染色质结构与基因表达存在一定异质性，但此类异质性并不能用于区分ES细胞与iPS细胞。实验设计：对7株人类ES细胞系、8株人类iPS细胞系以及2株成纤维细胞系（cell line2）开展基因表达检测。