# Potential Marker Genes for Predicting Adipogenic Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells
## 3 Results
### Combined Evaluation of mRNA Expression of Candidate Genes  
Since GPDH activity was much higher in ilium MSCs relative to jaw MSCs (Figure S1a), the mRNA expression of the isolated 22 candidates in ilium MSCs was compared with that in jaw MSCs (Table 2). We found that 18 of the 22 genes in ilium MSCs were expressed at significantly higher levels compared with jaw MSCs, whereas the remaining four genes were not significantly higher in ilium MSCs. In addition, mRNA levels of 11 genes in ilium MSCs were at least three times higher than those in jaw MSCs. The levels of the 11 genes in individual jaw MSCs were lower than those in most, but not all, ilium MSCs (Figure S2), although mean levels of these genes in jaw MSCs were at least three times lower than those in ilium MSCs (Table 2). The highest value of each gene in jaw MSC lines is higher than the lowest value in ilium MSC lines. This inconsistency is because the expression levels of the 11 genes greatly varied across MSC lines even in the same group. To reduce the effect of the inter-individual variation, we performed a combined 3D analysis of gene expression (Figure 2). In this analysis, we chose CD74 and CDKN2D, the expression levels of which were approximately 20 times higher in ilium MSCs compared with jaw MSCs (Table 2). We also chose ITGA5, which showed the highest correlation coefficient of 0.826 in the correlation analysis (Table 1). The 3D scatter plot for CDKN2D, ITGA5, and CD74 mRNA expression showed the complete separation between ilium MSCs and jaw MSCs. The values in all ilium MSC lines were more than three times higher than those in any jaw MSC line (Figure 2b). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Symbol** & **Gene Name** & **Correlation (r)** \\ \hline _ITCA5_ & integrin subunit alpha 5 & 0.826 *** \\ _MCAM_ & melanoma cell adhesion molecule & 0.812 *** \\ _GPR37_ & G protein-coupled receptor 37 & 0.782 ** \\ _PSMC5_ & proteasome 26S subunit, ATPase 5 & 0.769 ** \\ _ACLY_ & ATP citrate lyase & 0.737 ** \\ _DNCII_ & dynein cytoplasmic 1 intermediate chain 1 & 0.732 ** \\ _PHAHA2_ & prolyl 4-hydroxylase subunit alpha 2 & 0.720 ** \\ _LIF_ & leukemia inhibitory factor & 0.708 ** \\ _ZNF185_ & zinc finger protein 185 with LIM domain & 0.708 ** \\ _CDKN2D_ & cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 2D & 0.703 ** \\ _DPYSL3_ & dihydropyrimidine like 3 & 0.664 ** \\ _INPP5E_ & inositol polyphosphate-5-phosphatase E & 0.650 ** \\ _UB2 EC_ & ubiquitin conjugating enzyme E2 C & 0.612 * \\ _EZF1_ & EZF transcription factor 1 & 0.608 * \\ _CCNBI_ & cyclin B1 & 0.598 * \\ _CD74_ & CD74 antigen & 0.561 * \\ _COL7A1_ & collagen type VII alpha 1 chain & 0.561 * \\ _AUKKB_ & aurora kinase B & 0.556 * \\ _AMD1_ &adenosylmethionine decarboxylase 1 & 0.545 * \\ _CDC20_ & cell division cycle 20 & 0.526 * \\ _SLC2A1_ & solute carrier family 2 member 1 & 0.526 * \\ _MCM7_ & minichromosome maintenance complex component 7 & 0.517 * \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{_r_: Pearson correlation coefficient; * \(p\) \textless{0.05}, ** \(p\) \textless{0.01}, *** \(p\) \textless{0.001}.} \\ \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Candidate genes whose mRNA expression in MSCs before differentiation showing positive correlation with GPDH activities after adipogenic differentiation.