Cross-organ transcriptomic comparison reveals universal factors during maturation

Abstract

Various cell types can be derived from stem cells. However, these cells are immature and do not match their adult counterparts in functional capabilities, limiting their use in disease modeling and cell therapies. Thus, it is crucial to understand the mechanisms of maturation in vivo. However, it is unknown if there are genes and pathways conserved across organs during maturation. To address this, we performed a time-series analysis of the transcriptome of the mouse heart, brain, liver, and kidney and analyzed their trajectories over time. In addition, gene regulatory networks were reconstructed to determine overlapping expression patterns. Based on these, we identified commonly upregulated and downregulated pathways across all four organs. Key upstream regulators were also predicted based on the temporal expression of downstream genes. These findings suggest the presence of universal regulators during organ maturation, which may help us develop a general strategy to mature stem cell-derived cells in vitro.