Ethanol exposure has reportedly altered the expression of pluripotency markers during early differentiation in murine embryonic stem cells [21]. As such, we first asked whether ethanol impacts the pluripotency of human iPS cells. We analyzed the expression of Oct4, Tra-1-60 and Sox2 by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Interestingly, no abnormal pattern was detectable in treated compared to untreated cells, suggesting that pluripotency likely remains unaffected (Fig. 1a).
