Proteomic studies of stem cells*

Abstract

Stem cells of both embryonic and adult origins hold great promise in regenerative medicine owing to their unique properties of unlimited self renewal and differentiation toward specific lineage(s) once they receive the proper signals. Proteomics is a series of technology platforms driven by advancements in mass spectrometry and bioinformatics that encompass protein identification, the relative quantitation of proteins and peptides, their subcellular localization, and studies of post-translational modifications and protein-protein interactions. Stem cell biology has been influenced by these approaches and has evolved in the post-genomics era. Among many challenges in stem cell biology, there is a pressing need for the implementation of proteomic applications. Recent work on stem cells using proteomics has shown that transcriptome analyses fail to provide a full guide to developmental change in stem cells, and protein interactions that can only be discovered systematically using proteomic approaches have yielded important new concepts on processes regulating development and stem cell pluripotency. In this chapter, we will review current proteomic studies on embryonic and adult stem cells with an emphasis on embryonic stem cells.