RES E AR C H Open Access
Gene expression of OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and MYC
(OSKM) induced pluripotent stem cells:
identification for potential mechanisms
Yanning Cai
1,2*
, Xianhua Dai
1,2*
, Qianhua Zhang
1,2
and Zhiming Dai
1,2
Abstract
Background: Somatic cells could be reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) by ectopic expression
of OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and MYC (OSKM). We aimed to gain insights into the early mechanisms underlying the
induction of pluripotency.
Methods: GSE28688 containing 14 gene expression profiles were downloaded from GEO, including untreated
human neonatal foreskin fibroblasts (HFF1) as control, OSKM-induced HFF1 (at 24, 48, 72 h post-transduction of
OSKM encoding viruses), two iPS cell lines, and two embryonic stem (ES) cell lines. Differentially expressed genes
(DEGs) were screened between different cell lines and the control by Limma package in Bioconductor. KEGG pathway
enrichment analysis was performed by DAVID. The STRING database was used to construct protein-protein interaction
(PPI) network. Activities and regulatory networks of transcription factors (TFs) were calculated and constructed by Fast
Network Component Analysis (FastNCA).
Results: Compared with untreated HFF1, 117, 347, 557, 2263 and 2307 DEGs were obtained from three point
post-transduction HFF1, iPS and ES cells. Meanwhile, up-regulated DEGs in first two days of HFF1 were mainly
enriched in RIG-I-like receptor (RLR) and Toll-like r eceptor (TLR) signaling pathways. D own-regulated DEGs at
72 h were significantly enriched in focal adhesion pathw ay w hich was similar to iPS cells. Moreover, ISG15, IRF7,
STAT1 and DDX58 were with higher degree in PPI networks during time series. Furthermore, the targets of six
selected TFs were mainly enriched in screened DEGs.
Conclusion: In this study, screened DEGs including ISG15, IRF7 and CCL5 participated in OSKM-induced pluripotency
might attenuate immune response post-transduction through RLR and TLR signaling pathways.
Virtual slides: The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/
2503890341543007.
Keywords: Reprogramming, Transcriptional factor, Protein-protein interaction network, Regulatory network
Background
Human embryonic stem (ES) cells have potential in cell
replacement therapies using their regenerative proper-
ties. Disappointingly, there were many limitations for
using of ES cells as therapeutic transplantation material,
such as rejection [1], the risk of teratoma formation
from residual ES cells [2] and inadequate cell number
[3]. In contrast, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells take
advantages over ES cells. It is important to highlight the
need to investigate differences between iPS and ES cells.
In adult tissues and organs, fully differentiated cells
rarely change from one type to another. However, som-
atic cells can be forcibly reprogrammed to pluripotency
by cell fusion, somatic cell nuclear transfer and ectopic
expression of defined factors including octamer binding
transcription factor 4 (OCT4), SRY related high mobility
group box protein 2 (SOX 2), Kruppel like factor 4
(KLF4) and myelocytomatosis viral oncogene (MYC)
(known as OSKM factors) [4-6]. Takahashi and Yamanaka
* Correspondence: caiyanningmitl@sina.com ; issdxh@mail.sysu.edu.cn
1
School of Information Science and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University,
Higher Education Mega Center, No.132 East Outer Ring Road, Guangzhou,
China
2
SYSU-CMU Shunde International Joint Research Institute (JRI), Shunde,
Guangdong, China
© 2015 Cai et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain
Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article,
unless otherwise stated.
Cai et al. Diagnostic Pathology (2015) 10:35
DOI 10.1186/s13000-015-0263-7