Variability of miRNA expression during the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into retinal pigment epithelial cells

Zhidong Yuan; Suping Ding; Mingli Yan; Xiao Zhu; Lili Liu; Shuhua Tan; Yuanchang Jin; Yuandong Sun; Yufeng Li; Ting Huang

doi:10.1016/j.gene.2015.05.060

Variability of miRNA expression during the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into retinal pigment epithelial cells

Gene. 2015 Sep 15;569(2):239-49. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2015.05.060. Epub 2015 May 28.

Authors

Zhidong Yuan¹, Suping Ding², Mingli Yan³, Xiao Zhu⁴, Lili Liu³, Shuhua Tan³, Yuanchang Jin², Yuandong Sun³, Yufeng Li², Ting Huang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China; Key Laboratory of Ecological Remediation and Safe Utilization of Heavy Metal-Polluted Soils, College of Hunan Province, Xiangtan 411201, China. Electronic address: zdyuan@hnust.edu.cn.
² School of Life Sciences, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China.
³ School of Life Sciences, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China; Key Laboratory of Ecological Remediation and Safe Utilization of Heavy Metal-Polluted Soils, College of Hunan Province, Xiangtan 411201, China.
⁴ Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Diagnosis, Dongguan Scientific Research Center, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan 523808, China.

PMID: 26028588
DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2015.05.060

Abstract

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells can be induced to differentiate into retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). MiRNAs have been characterized and found playing important roles in the differentiation process of ESCs, but their length and sequence heterogeneity (isomiRs), and their non-canonical forms of miRNAs are underestimated or ignored. In this report, we found some non-canonical miRNAs (dominant isomiRs) in all differentiation stages, and 27 statistically significant editing sites were identified in 24 different miRNAs. Moreover, we found marked major-to-minor arm-switching events in 14 pre-miRNAs during the hESC to RPE cell differentiation phases. Our study for the first time reports exploring the variability of miRNA expression during the differentiation of hESCs into RPE cells and the results show that miRNA variability is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the ESC differentiation.

Keywords: Embryonic stem cell; Human; IsomiR; Retinal pigment epithelium cell.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cell Differentiation*
Embryonic Stem Cells / cytology*
Embryonic Stem Cells / metabolism
Humans
Macular Degeneration / pathology
MicroRNAs / chemistry
MicroRNAs / genetics*
Retinal Pigment Epithelium / cytology*
Transcriptome

Substances

MicroRNAs