Fig. 3

Phenotypic characteristics and global gene expression analyses of hSSC-derived DA neurons. qRT-PCR analyses showed the transcripts of neural markers Tuj-1 TH, DAT, Nurr1 GFAP, and CNP (a–f); neural stem cell markers nestin, Pax6, and CD133 (g–i); and hSSC markers PLZF, GPR125, DAZL, and GFRA1 (j–n) in hSSCs in induction medium for 1, 2, and 3 weeks. GAPDH was used as a loading control for total RNA. BT, brain tissue, was used as a positive control. “*” indicated statistically significant differences (*p < 0.05) compared to the control, while “^#” denoted statistically significant differences (^#p < 0.05) compared to the positive control. ** and ^## represent p < 0.01; *** and ^### represent p < 0.001. Three independent experiments are represented. o, p Homogeneity of gene expression visualized by scatter plot presentation. Shown are plots of the averaged intensities of each group as indicated. q Venn diagram of differentially expressed genes shared between hSSCs, hSSCs-derived DA neurons (iDANs) and w-DA neurons (w-DANs). r Hierarchical clustering analysis showed the global gene expression profiles of hSSCs undergoing this induction for different times