scholarly journals The development and stem cells of the esophagus

Development ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 148 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongchun Zhang ◽  
Dominique Bailey ◽  
Patrick Yang ◽  
Eugene Kim ◽  
Jianwen Que

ABSTRACT The esophagus is derived from the anterior portion of the foregut endoderm, which also gives rise to the respiratory system. As it develops, the esophageal lining is transformed from a simple columnar epithelium into a stratified squamous cell layer, accompanied by the replacement of unspecified mesenchyme with layers of muscle cells. Studies in animal models have provided significant insights into the roles of various signaling pathways in esophageal development. More recent studies using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) further demonstrate that some of these signaling pathways are conserved in human esophageal development. In addition, a combination of mouse genetics and hPSC differentiation approaches have uncovered new players that control esophageal morphogenesis. In this Review, we summarize these new findings and discuss how the esophagus is established and matures throughout different stages, including its initial specification, respiratory-esophageal separation, epithelial morphogenesis and maintenance. We also discuss esophageal muscular development and enteric nervous system innervation, which are essential for esophageal structure and function.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. e30234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Orlando ◽  
Yolanda Sanchez-Ripoll ◽  
James Foster ◽  
Heather Bone ◽  
Claudia Giachino ◽  
...  

Circulation ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 132 (suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaniar Ghazizadeh ◽  
Seyedeh Faranak Fattahi ◽  
Mehdi Sharifi-tabar ◽  
Shahab Mirshahvaladi ◽  
Parisa Shabani ◽  
...  

The cardiac conduction system is a complex network of cells that together orchestrate the rhythmic and coordinated depolarization of the heart. Dysfunction of the cardiac conduction system plays a central role in the pathogenesis of arrhythmia. While much progress has been made understanding cardiomyocyte differentiation, the molecular mechanisms regulating the specification and patterning of cells that form this conductive network is largely unknown. The LIM-homeodomain transcription factor ISL1 is highly expressed in the secondary heart field (SHF) progenitor population that makes a substantial contribution to the developing heart, comprising most cells in the right ventricle, both atria and pacemaker cells. Pacemaker cells comprise the most proximal component of the cardiac conduction system, which have been proposed as the source of most arrhythmogenic events. Their dominance on other spontaneous beating cell types makes them a suitable target for pharmacologic compounds, making access to this cell lineage necessary for the study of new therapeutic agents. To identify the signaling pathways that control the differentiation of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived SHF cells into pacemaker cells, we performed RNA sequencing to compare the hESC-derived ISL1 + population, non-enriched population and undifferentiated hESCs. Furthermore, using a small molecule screen we identified compounds that can improve differentiation of hESCs toward pacemaker cells. Pathway analysis identified the Wnt pathway as the most significant regulator of SHF specification. Further differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells by stage-specific activation of BMP and WNT signaling pathways resulted in phenotypic pacemaker cells, which display morphological characteristics. More than 80% of these cells stained positively for HCN4, Contactin2(CNTN2) and GATA6, key markers of pacemaker cells. The differentiated cells express pacemaker markers, including CNTN2, TBX2, TBX3, HCN4, TBX18, GATA6 indicated by qRT-PCR. They show inward potassium currents through HCN channels in patch clamp experiments. Our data provides a new strategy to obtain human cardiac conduction cells in large scale for disease modeling, drug screening and cell therapy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jungwoon Lee ◽  
Young-Jun Park ◽  
Haiyoung Jung

Protein kinases modulate the reversible postmodifications of substrate proteins to their phosphorylated forms as an essential process in regulating intracellular signaling transduction cascades. Moreover, phosphorylation has recently been shown to tightly control the regulatory network of kinases responsible for the induction and maintenance of pluripotency, defined as the particular ability to differentiate pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) into every cell type in the adult body. In particular, emerging evidence indicates that the balance between the self-renewal and differentiation of PSCs is regulated by the small molecules that modulate kinase signaling pathways. Furthermore, new reprogramming technologies have been developed using kinase modulators, which have provided novel insight of the mechanisms underlying the kinase regulatory networks involved in the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). In this review, we highlight the recent progress made in defining the roles of protein kinase signaling pathways and their small molecule modulators in regulating the pluripotent states, self-renewal, reprogramming process, and lineage differentiation of PSCs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (9) ◽  
pp. 931-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yicheng Long ◽  
Taeyoung Hwang ◽  
Anne R. Gooding ◽  
Karen J. Goodrich ◽  
John L. Rinn ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 1567-1578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Wanjare ◽  
Luqia Hou ◽  
Karina H. Nakayama ◽  
Joseph J. Kim ◽  
Nicholas P. Mezak ◽  
...  

Engineering of myocardial tissue constructs is a promising approach for treatment of coronary heart disease.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Skylar-Scott ◽  
Jeremy Y. Huang ◽  
Aric Lu ◽  
Alex H.M. Ng ◽  
Tomoya Duenki ◽  
...  

AbstractSimultaneous differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into divergent cell types offers a pathway to achieving tailorable cellular complexity, patterned architecture, and function in engineered human organoids and tissues. Recent transcription factor (TF) overexpression protocols typically produce only one cell type of interest rather than the multitude of cell types and structural organization found in native human tissues. Here, we report an orthogonal differentiation platform for genomically programming stem cells, organoids and bioprinted tissues with controlled composition and organization. To demonstrate this platform, we orthogonally differentiated endothelial cells and neurons from hiPSCs in a one-pot system containing neural stem cell-specifying media. By aggregating inducible-TF and wildtype hiPSCs into pooled and multicore-shell embryoid bodies, we produced vascularized and patterned cortical organoids within days. Using multimaterial 3D bioprinting, we patterned 3D neural tissues from densely cellular, matrix-free stem cell inks that were orthogonally differentiated on demand into distinct layered regions composed of neural stem cells, endothelium, and neurons, respectively. Given the high proliferative capacity and patient-specificity of hiPSCs, our platform provides a facile route for programming cells and multicellular tissues for drug screening and therapeutic applications.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro La Greca ◽  
María Agustina Scarafía ◽  
María Clara Hernández Cañás ◽  
Nelba Pérez ◽  
Sheila Castañeda ◽  
...  

SummaryPIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs initially thought to be restricted almost exclusively to germ line cells. In recent years, accumulating evidence has demonstrated that piRNAs are actually expressed in somatic cells like pluripotent, neural, cardiac and even cancer cells. However, controversy still remains around the existence and function of somatic piRNAs. Using small RNA-seq samples from H9 pluripotent stem cells differentiated to mesoderm progenitors and cardiomyocytes we identified the expression of 447 piRNAs, of which 241 were detected in pluripotency, 218 in mesoderm and 171 in cardiac cells. The majority of them originated from the sense strand of protein coding and lncRNAs genes in all stages of differentiation, though no evidences for secondary piRNAs (ping-pong loop) were found. Genes hosting piRNAs in cardiac samples were related to critical biological processes in the heart, like contraction and cardiac muscle development. Our results indicate that somatic piRNAs might have a role in fine-tuning the expression of genes involved in the differentiation of pluripotent cells to cardiomyocytes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (33) ◽  
pp. eabf4416
Author(s):  
Yanxing Wei ◽  
Tianyu Wang ◽  
Lishi Ma ◽  
Yanqi Zhang ◽  
Yuan Zhao ◽  
...  

Human trophoblast stem cells (hTSCs) provide a valuable model to study placental development and function. While primary hTSCs have been derived from embryos/early placenta, and transdifferentiated hTSCs from naïve human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), the generation of hTSCs from primed PSCs is problematic. We report the successful generation of TSCs from primed hPSCs and show that BMP4 substantially enhances this process. TSCs derived from primed hPSCs are similar to blastocyst-derived hTSCs in terms of morphology, proliferation, differentiation potential, and gene expression. We define the chromatin accessibility dynamics and histone modifications (H3K4me3/H3K27me3) that specify hPSC-derived TSCs. Consistent with low density of H3K27me3 in primed hPSC-derived hTSCs, we show that knockout of H3K27 methyltransferases (EZH1/2) increases the efficiency of hTSC derivation from primed hPSCs. Efficient derivation of hTSCs from primed hPSCs provides a simple and powerful model to understand human trophoblast development, including the pathogenesis of trophoblast-related disorders, by generating disease-specific hTSCs.


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