CELL SURFACE GLYCOSPHINGOLIPIDS SSEA-3 AND SSEA-4

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Pluripotent cells can be isolated from the human blastocyst and maintained in culture as self-renewing, undifferentiated, embryonic stem cells (hESCs). They are a valuable model of human development in vitro, and are the focus of substantial research aimed at generating differentiated populations for cellular therapies. The extracellular markers that have been used to characterize hESCs are primarily carbohydrate epitopes on proteoglycans or sphingolipids, such as the stage-specific embryonic antigens (SSEA)-3 and 4. The expression of SSEA-3 and 4 is tightly regulated during preimplantation development and on hESCs. While this might imply a molecular function in undifferentiated cells, it has not yet been tested experimentally.