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Related Concept Videos

Embryonic Stem Cells00:57

Embryonic Stem Cells

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Embryonic stem (ES) cells were first discovered in mice in 1981 by Martin Evans. In 1998, James Thomson identified a method to isolate embryonic stem cells from humans. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are obtained from 3-5 day old embryos that remain unused after an in vitro fertilization procedure.
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Embryonic stem (ES) cells are undifferentiated pluripotent cells, meaning they can produce any cell type in the body. This gives them tremendous potential in science and medicine since they can generate specific cell types for use in research or to replace body cells lost due to damage or disease.
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Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells01:06

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Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that divide and produce different cell types. Ordinarily, cells that have differentiated into a specific cell type are terminally differentiated; however, scientists have found a way to reprogram these mature cells so that they dedifferentiate and return to an unspecialized, proliferative state. These cells are pluripotent like embryonic stem cells—able to produce all cell types—and are called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 26, 2026

Profiling Individual Human Embryonic Stem Cells by Quantitative RT-PCR
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Human embryonic stem cells show low-grade microsatellite instability.

Ha Thi Nguyen1, Christina Markouli1, Mieke Geens1

  • 1Research Group Reproduction and Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090 Brussels, Belgium.

Molecular Human Reproduction
|August 2, 2014
PubMed
Summary

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) exhibit low-level microsatellite instability (MSI), a form of genome instability also seen in cancer. This instability, linked to DNA mismatch repair (MMR) gene expression, occurs at a variable frequency in hESCs.

Keywords:
human embryonic stem cellsmicrosatellite instabilitymismatch repair system

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Area of Science:

  • Stem cell biology
  • Genetics
  • Cancer research

Background:

  • Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) share chromosomal abnormalities with cancer cells.
  • Microsatellite instability (MSI), a hallmark of cancer genome instability, arises from deficient DNA mismatch repair (MMR).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the presence and characteristics of MSI in hESCs.
  • To compare MSI in hESCs with that observed in cancerous cells.
  • To explore the relationship between MMR gene expression and MSI levels in hESCs.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 122 microsatellites across 10 hESC lines from passage 7 to 334.
  • Small-pool PCR and Bethesda panel testing for microsatellite analysis.
  • Assessment of MMR gene expression variability.

Main Results:

  • Altered microsatellite allelic patterns were detected in two hESC lines.
  • MSI was present in all tested hESC lines but at a low and variable frequency (1-20% of alleles).
  • hESCs displayed small MSI changes in a minority of cells, unlike the large, frequent shifts in cancer cells.

Conclusions:

  • hESCs exhibit a distinct, low-frequency form of MSI compared to cancer.
  • The observed MSI in hESCs does not appear to confer a selective advantage.
  • Variable MMR gene expression in hESCs correlates with, but does not fully explain, the low and variable MSI levels.