OBJECTIVE The human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are endogenous retroviruses that were inserted into the germ cell DNA of humans over 30 million years ago. Insertion of HERVs into the chromosomal DNA can influence a number of host genes in various modes during human evolution and their proviral long terminal repeats can participate in the transcriptional regulation of various cellular genes. Our aim was to evaluate the pol gene expression of HERV-K and HERV-H in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in relation with the expression of stemness genes such as NANOG, OCT-4, and SOX-2. METHODS MSCs were isolated from bone marrow of healthy donors and expanded until the 5th passage in α-MEM with 10% fetal bovine serum. HERV-K, HERV-H pol gene, NANOG, OCT-4, SOX-2, and GAPDH expression was quantified by real-time PCR in MSCs during the expansion. RESULTS HERV-K and HERV-H expression was always higher at p1 compared to other passages and this difference reached a high statistical significance when passage p1 was compared with passage 3. In addition, NANOG, OCT-4, and SOX-2 expression at p1 was significantly higher than their expression at p3. Pearson's test demonstrated a strong correlation between the expression of HERV-K and HERV-H and the expression of NANOG, OCT-4, and SOX-2. CONCLUSIONS Our findings showed that HERV-K and H were concurrently expressed with pluripotency biomarkers NANOG, OCT-4, and SOX-2.

中文翻译：

---

人内源性逆转录病毒H和K在人间充质干细胞中的表达是潜在的干性标志。

目的人类内源性逆转录病毒（HERV）是一种内源性逆转录病毒，已在三千万年前被插入人类生殖细胞DNA中。在人类进化过程中，将HERV插入染色体DNA可以以多种方式影响许多宿主基因，其前病毒长末端重复序列可以参与各种细胞基因的转录调控。我们的目的是评估间充质干细胞（MSCs）中HERV-K和HERV-H的pol基因表达与干基因如NANOG，OCT-4和SOX-2的表达相关。方法从健康供体的骨髓中分离MSC，并在含10％胎牛血清的α-MEM中扩增至第5代。扩增过程中，通过实时PCR定量HERV-K，HERV-H pol基因，NANOG，OCT-4，SOX-2和GAPDH的表达。结果HERV-K和HERV-H在p1处的表达总是比其他传代更高，当将p1传给第3代时，这种差异达到了很高的统计学意义。此外，NANOG，OCT-4和SOX-2的表达在p1显着高于其在p3处的表达。Pearson的检验证明了HERV-K和HERV-H的表达与NANOG，OCT-4和SOX-2的表达之间有很强的相关性。结论我们的研究结果表明HERV-K和H与多能生物标志物NANOG，OCT-4和SOX-2同时表达。p1的SOX-2表达明显高于p3的表达。Pearson的检验证明了HERV-K和HERV-H的表达与NANOG，OCT-4和SOX-2的表达之间有很强的相关性。结论我们的研究结果表明HERV-K和H与多能生物标志物NANOG，OCT-4和SOX-2同时表达。p1的SOX-2表达明显高于p3的表达。Pearson的检验证明了HERV-K和HERV-H的表达与NANOG，OCT-4和SOX-2的表达之间有很强的相关性。结论我们的研究结果表明HERV-K和H与多能生物标志物NANOG，OCT-4和SOX-2同时表达。