Characterization of Carbohydrate Surface Markers on Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

Glycosylation of proteins and lipids on cell surface have been shown to be important in maintaining pluripotency and stem cell fate in embryonic stem cells. Lectins have been widely used to characterize carbohydrate modifications on cell surface of embryonic stem cells to determine pluripotency and stem cell fate. In the present study, a panel of 14 lectins and carbohydrate antibodies was used to characterize the carbohydrate surface markers of mouse Embryonic Stem (ES) Cells. SSEA-1-positive mouse ES cells were firstly enriched and the carbohydrate profile of the cells was determined by flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry. Enrichment of mouse ES cells yielded approximately 99.95 ± 0.87% of SSEA-1-positive mouse ES cells. A uniform and high percentage of binding was observed for PNA, DSL, JAC, GNL, PSA and LTL, with PNA, DSL, JAC and GNL having similar percentage of binding to SSEA-1 (99.9%), while PSA and LTL binding were approximately 95%-99%. Partial binding of WFL, SNA and AAL were observed in mouse ES cells which was also reflected by the respective immunocytochemistry images. A very low percentage of binding was observed for MAA and UEAI. The data showed that high expression of mannose, N-acetyllactosamine and galactose are present on the cell surface of mouse ES cells. Some reliable surface markers that can be used to determine pluripotency are PNA, DSL, JAC and GNL, which showed similar binding to SSEA-1, a well-established pluripotent marker. Taken together, the data has provided information on the cell surface carbohydrate profile of mouse ES cells. Characterization of Carbohydrate Surface Markers on Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Zhenwei He2,1,#, Yue An1,3,#, Gang Shi4,1,#, Yingwei Lin1,3, Jiliang Hu5* and Yali Li1* 1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China 2Department of Neurology, Forth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province China, 3Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning 116027, China 4Department of Colorectal Surgery, Liaoning Cancer Hospital and Institute, Cancer Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110042, China 5Department of Neurosurgery, The Shenzhen People's Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical Collage of Jinan University), Guangdong 518020, China #These authors have contributed equally to this work *Corresponding authors: Yali Li, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China, Tel: +86 755 22948200; E-mail: [email protected] Jiliang Hu, Department of Neurosurgery, The Shenzhen People's Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical Collage of Jinan University), Guangdong 518020, China, Tel: +86 20 8522 0010; E-mail: [email protected] Received July 24, 2016; Accepted August 12, 2016; Published August 19, 2016 Citation: He Z, An Y, Shi G, Lin Y, Hu J, et al. (2016) Characterization of Carbohydrate Surface Markers on Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells. J Stem Cell Res Ther 6: 353. doi: 10.4172/2157-7633.1000353 Copyright: © 2016 He Z, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.