Comparison of Expression Profiles of HOX Gene Family in HumanEmbryonic Stem Cells and Selected Human Fetal Tissues

The HOX genes coding homeodomain proteinsdetermines the fates of cells during embryonic developmentand patterning. It is believed that a set of diferentiation-specific HOX genes enter into a turn-on state during tissuediferentiation, in contrast to stem cell-specific HOX genesthat enter into a turn-of state. However, comprehensive dataof expression profiles of HOX genes in human embryonicstem cels (hESC) and diferentiated embryonic tissues arepaterns of all 39 HOX genes in hESC and human fetal tissuesand analyzed the relationships between hESC and each tissue.Of the 39 genes, 18 HOX genes were expresed in stem cells,and diverse expression patterning was observed in humanfetal tissues when compared with stem cells. These resultsindicate that HOX genes could be main targets for switchingof stem cell diferentiation into tisues. KCI Citation Count: 1