Maintenance of pluripotency depends to diverse regulatory factors. Studies in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have indicated that large intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) are involved in the regulatory network of pluripotency. However, the presence and function of pluripotency-associated lincRNAs in cancer cells with pluripotency features are unknown. In this study, we used embryonal carcinoma (EC) P19 cell lines to investigate the expression level of Halr1 in pluripotency and retinoic acid (RA)-induced differentiated states. Down-regulation of pluripotency associated factors such as OCT4, NANOG, SSEA1 and alkaline phosphatase at transcript and protein levels were used to confirm the differentiated status of P19 cells. Quantitative measurement of Halr1 transcript levels revealed a 79% decrease during RA-induced differentiation of P19 cells. These results indicate that upon exiting the pluripotency state the expression level of Halr1 similar to core pluripotency factors is remarkably reduced.

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