Quantitative glycomics monitoring of induced pluripotent- and embryonic stem cells during neuronal differentiation

• The amount of bisecting type N-glycans in iPSCs was different from that in ESCs.
• Bisecting type N-glycans were up-regulated in neurons derived from iPSCs and ESCs.
• Bisecting type N-gycans have potential to be a marker in neuronal differentiation.
• From a glycobiological standpoint iPSCs are an alternative neural cell source.

Alterations in the structure of cell surface glycoforms occurring during the stages of stem cell differentiation remain unclear. We describe a rapid glycoblotting-based cellular glycomics method for quantitatively evaluating changes in glycoform expression and structure during neuronal differentiation of murine induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Our results show that changes in the expression of cellular N-glycans are comparable during the differentiation of iPSCs and ESCs. The expression of bisect-type N-glycans was significantly up-regulated in neurons that differentiated from both iPSCs and ESCs. From a glycobiological standpoint, iPSCs are an alternative neural cell source in addition to ESCs.

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