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Updated: Apr 13, 2026
Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells into Cortical Interneuron Precursors
Published on: December 3, 2017
MiR-3099 is Overexpressed in Differentiating 46c Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells upon Neural Induction
Shahidee Zainal Abidin1, Maryam Abbaspourbabaei1, Carolindah Makena Ntimi1
1Genetics and Regenerative Medicine Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia ; Clinical Genetics Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Background:
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have a crucial role in gene expression regulation and protein synthesis, especially in the central nervous system. In developing mouse embryos a novel miRNA, miR-3099, is highly expressed, particularly in the central nervous system. This study aims to determine the expression of miR-3099 during cellular differentiation of 46C mouse embryonic stem cells after neural induction with N2/B27 medium.
Methods:
46C mouse embryonic stem cells were subjected to neural induction with N2/B27 medium. At 0, 3, 7, 11, 17, and 22 days after neural induction, the cells were screened for various pluripotent, progenitor, and differentiating/differentiated cells markers by immunocytochemistry and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Stem-loop pulse RT-PCR was performed to determine the expression of miR-3099 at all selected time points after neural induction.
Results:
Our findings showed that after induction, mouse embryonic stem cells differentiated into heterogeneous pools of cells containing neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Mouse embryonic stem cells and neural progenitor/precursor cells were also present in culture up to day 22 as indicated by RT-PCR analysis. Elucidation of miR-3099 expression during in vitro neural induction revealed that this miRNA was expressed throughout the differentiation process of 46C mouse embryonic stem cells. miR-3099 was expressed at higher levels on day 11, 17, and 22 as compared to day 0, 3 and 7 after neural induction.
Conclusion:
The level of miR-3099 expression was higher in differentiated mouse embryonic stem cells after neural induction. This finding suggested that miR-3099 might play a role in regulating neural stem cell differentiation. However, further characterisation of miR-3099 in a better characterised or optimised differentiated neural stem cell culture would provide increased understanding of the cellular function and molecular targets of miR-3099, especially in neuron development.
