hESC- and fetal liver–derived monocytic cells share a distinguishing signature of tissue-remodeling activity. hESC- and fetal liver–derived CD14⁺CD16⁺ cells were sorted, and the expression of genes typical of M2 polarization were analyzed in comparison with adult blood sorted CD14⁺CD16⁺ cells using a customized gene array (Applied Biosystems; n = 4 for each population). (A) Heat-map representation of a common M2 gene signature shared by hESC- and fetal liver–derived monocyte/macrophages. (B) Relative mRNA expression (ΔCT) for receptor and chemokines tested. Expression of genes was normalized over the endogenous controls 18S and Gapdh; the higher the ΔCT, the lower the gene expression. (C) Expression of metalloproteases in hESCs and fetal cells is shown in terms of amplification versus expression in adult cells. Embryonic and fetal macrophages exhibited a several-fold up-regulation of several metalloproteases (MMP2, MMP7, MMP9, MMP12, and MMP14). *Increased expression of genes encoding metalloproteases and chemokines in hESC-derived cells compared with adult cells by pairwise comparisons using t test of genes (P = .01). A decreased expression of the Th1 chemokine CXCL9 was found in embryonic cells (P = .05).