MicroRNA expression patterns and function in endodermal differentiation of human embryonic stem cells.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: microRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that regulate cognate mRNAs post-transcriptionally.Human embryonic stem cells (hESC), which exhibit the characteristics of pluripotency and self-renewal, may serve as a model to study the role of miRNAs in early human development.We aimed to determine whether endodermally-differentiated h