Sprouty (Spry) genes encode inhibitors of the receptor tyrosine kinase signaling cascade, which plays important roles in stem cells. However, the role of Spry4 in the stemness of embryonic stem cells has not been fully elucidated. Here, we used mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) as a model system to investigate the role of Spry4 in the stem cells. Suppression of Spry4 expression results in the decreases of cell proliferation, EB formation and stemness marker expression, suggesting that Spry4 activity is associated with stemness of mESCs. Teratoma assay showed that the cartilage maturation was facilitated in Spry4 knocked down mESCs. Our results suggest that Spry4 is an important regulator of the stemness and differentiation of mESCs.

INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
  1. Reagents and cell culture
  2. Genetic modification of mESCs
  3. RNA extraction and real-time RT-PCR
  4. Immunoblotting
  5. Teratoma formation
  6. Statistical analysis
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES

• Jae-Young Lee(1Dept. of Biomedical Science, College of Life Science, CHA University)
• Sunghyun Park(Dept. of Biomedical Science, College of Life Science, CHA University)
• Kwang-Soo Kim(Dept. of Biomedical Science, College of Life Science, CHA University)
• Jeong-Jae Ko(Dept. of Biomedical Science, College of Life Science, CHA University)
• Soohong Lee(Dept. of Biomedical Science, College of Life Science, CHA University)
• Keun Pil Kim(Dept. of Life Science, Chung-Ang University) Corresponding Author
• Kyung-Soon Park(Dept. of Biomedical Science, College of Life Science, CHA University) Corresponding Author