Fig. 3

CD133 deficiency represses cell growth of hESCs. a Growth curves show that CD133 KO significantly restrains hESC proliferation. Bars indicate mean ± SD (n = 3). b Cell cycle analysis of CD133 KO hESC by flow cytometry. The peaks in the illustration correspond to the G1/G0, S, and G2/M phases of the cell cycle. Histogram showing the percentages of cells in each phase of the cell cycle. Bars indicate mean ± SD (n = 3). c Representative telomere Q-FISH images of CD133 KO and WT WA26 hESCs. Telomeres are labeled by CY3 probes (red), and chromosomes are labeled with DAPI (blue). Scale bar = 10 μm. Histogram shows distribution of relative telomere length expressed as fluorescence intensity (TFU, telomere fluorescence unit) by telomere Q-FISH analysis. Green line indicates median telomere length. Average telomere length is shown as mean TFU ± SD. d Telomere restriction fragment (TRF) analysis the telomere lengths in CD133 KO hESC compared with WT ESCs at different cell passage (passage 2 vs. passage 20). e Telomerase activity by TRAP assay of CD133 WT and KO hESCs