Comment on " 'Stemness': Transcriptional Profiling of Embryonic and Adult Stem Cells" and "A Stem Cell Molecular Signature" (I)

Abstract
We have independently carried out gene expression profiling of three types of stem or immature progenitor cells: ESCs, NPCs, and retinal progenitor/stem cells, or RPCs (Fig. 1) (4, 5). The intersection of ESC-, NPC- and RPC-enriched genes defined a list of 385 genes that are collectively expressed by all three stem cells (6). It can be inferred that these genes may represent or include putative “stemness” genes. For the approach taken here to be able to define and support the notion of “stemness” genes, however, would also require that very similar sets of genes can be identified regardless of the type of stem cells used. To test the validity of this notion, we have collectively analyzed our results along with those from the studies of Ramalho-Santos et al. (1) and Ivanova et al. (2) (Figs. 2 and 3). To our surprise, a comparison of the three independently derived lists of “stemness” genes showed only one gene (integrin alpha-6) commonly identified in the three studies (Figs. 2A and 3A) (6). This finding raised serious concerns about the conclusions reported in (1) and (2), as was also critically highlighted by Burns and Zon (7).

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