Skip to main content
. 2011 Feb 7;121(3):1217–1221. doi: 10.1172/JCI44635

Figure 2. Immunophenotypic and positional variation in single cell gene expression.

Figure 2

(A) Gene expression profiling of single hiPSCs expressing the Tra-1-60+/SSEA-4+ immunophenotype. Heat map representations of gene expression levels in immunophenotyped hESCs and hiPSCs versus differentiated fibroblast cells (IMR90), with each column representing a single cell. Single hESCs (left) show minimal heterogeneity, while single hiPSCs (middle) show increased variability in comparison with 4 somatic IMR90 cells (right), with no segregation of cells according to cell line when subjected to a hierarchical clustering algorithm. A gradient of hiPSC expression is evident, with cells expressing low levels of pluripotency transcripts enriched to the right. (B and C) Positional variation in transcript expression levels within pluripotent stem cell colonies. (B) A positional gradient of expression is evident in both hESCs and hiPSCs, with lower expression of pluripotency transcripts observed in the periphery of the colony. (C) Expression levels of ectoderm (PAX6 and NES), early mesoderm (GATA4), and endoderm (SOX17) transcripts are uniform across hESC colonies. However, the periphery of hiPSC colonies has undergone relative downregulation of endoderm marker SOX17 and relative upregulation of ectoderm marker PAX6.