Novel variant of OCT4B4 is differentially expressed in human embryonic stem and embryonic carcinoma cells

In present study, during expression check of OCT4B1 in embryonic carcinoma cells (NT2), we discovered a novel OCT4 transcript for the first time and designated it as OCT4B4. This variant is expressed in various human pluripotent cells and its expression is down-regulated upon induction of differentiation. Moreover, knocking down of OCT4B4 by shRNA resulted in increased accumulation of transfected cells in G0/G1 phase compared to the mock-transfected control cells.