Fig. 1

RA and AscPNa promoted reprogramming less in the presence of each other. a-d 10 nM RA or 1 μM RA were used during reprogramming of MEFs with or without 0.16 mM AscPNa (a). Three different media were used for reprogramming, conventional mES medium (b), N2B27 medium (c), and E8 medium (d). The Oct4-GFP⁺ colonies were counted on day 12 in the presence of AscPNa and on day 23–25 in the absence of AscPNa. By controlling the time points at which the Oct4-GFP⁺ colonies were counted, the numbers of Oct4-GFP⁺ colonies in “DMSO” groups without AscPNa were similar to those in “DMSO” groups with AscPNa. The comparisons were preformed between RA-treated groups and corresponding control (DMSO) groups or between indicated groups with two-way ANOVA (n ≥ 5, standard deviations were provided). (E-H) 10 nM or 1 μM RA were used during reprogramming of MEFs with N2B27 medium with or without 0.16 mM AscPNa. RNA-seq was performed on day 6. MEFs and ESCs were used as controls. Top 500 upregulated and downregulated genes were selected and their expression on day 6 during reprogramming was summarized in (e). Target genes of RA or AscPNa were selected (Log₂ change over 1) and compared (f). The genes upregulated (g) and downregulated (h) by both RA and AscPNa were subjected to GO analysis