[Protein kinases abundantly expressed in undifferentiated human ESC lines and derived embryoid bodies]

The ability of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to unlimited proliferation and huge differentiation potential makes them very attractive tool both for basic research and biological medicine. There are still little known about mechanisms that govern their differentiation or keep them in a pluripotency state. A variety of signaling events determines gene expression profiles responsible for such mechanisms activation. Protein kinases are key components of the signaling cascades. The knowledge about protein kinases expression profile in undifferentiated ESCs and embryoid bodies (EBs) will allow to understand early differentiation events. We constructed cDNA libraries containing fragments of protein kinases catalytic domain that were expressed in undifferentiated cells or EB of hESM01, hESM02 cell lines. We detected high level of MAK-V expression using Northern-blot hybridization. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was used to compare the level of abundantly expressed kinases MAK-V, A-RAF-1, MARK3, IGF1R, NEK3 and NEK7 in undifferentiated ESCs or derived EBs.