scholarly journals Alteration of Differentiation Potentials by Modulating GATA Transcription Factors in Murine Embryonic Stem Cells

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Callinice D. Capo-chichi ◽  
Jennifer L. Smedberg ◽  
Malgorzata Rula ◽  
Emmanuelle Nicolas ◽  
Anthony T. Yeung ◽  
...  

Background. Mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells can be differentiated in vitro by aggregation and/or retinoic acid (RA) treatment. The principal differentiation lineage in vitro is extraembryonic primitive endoderm. Dab2, Laminin, GATA4, GATA5, and GATA6 are expressed in embryonic primitive endoderm and play critical roles in its lineage commitment.Results. We found that in the absence of GATA4 or GATA5, RA-induced primitive endoderm differentiation of ES cells was reduced. GATA4 (−/−) ES cells express higher level of GATA5, GATA6, and hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha marker of visceral endoderm lineage. GATA5 (−/−) ES cells express higher level of alpha fetoprotein marker of early liver development. GATA6 (−/−) ES cells express higher level of GATA5 as well as mesoderm and cardiomyocyte markers which are collagen III alpha-1 and tropomyosin1 alpha. Thus, deletion of GATA6 precluded endoderm differentiation but promoted mesoderm lineages.Conclusions. GATA4, GATA5, and GATA6 each convey a unique gene expression pattern and influences ES cell differentiation. We showed that ES cells can be directed to avoid differentiating into primitive endoderm and to adopt unique lineages in vitro by modulating GATA factors. The finding offers a potential approach to produce desirable cell types from ES cells, useful for regenerative cell therapy.

Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 107 (4) ◽  
pp. 1265-1275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abby L. Olsen ◽  
David L. Stachura ◽  
Mitchell J. Weiss

Embryonic stem (ES) cells exhibit the remarkable capacity to become virtually any differentiated tissue upon appropriate manipulation in culture, a property that has been beneficial for studies of hematopoiesis. Until recently, the majority of this work used murine ES cells for basic research to elucidate fundamental properties of blood-cell development and establish methods to derive specific mature lineages. Now, the advent of human ES cells sets the stage for more applied pursuits to generate transplantable cells for treating blood disorders. Current efforts are directed toward adapting in vitro hematopoietic differentiation methods developed for murine ES cells to human lines, identifying the key interspecies differences in biologic properties of ES cells, and generating ES cell-derived hematopoietic stem cells that are competent to repopulate adult hosts. The ultimate medical goal is to create patient-specific and generic ES cell lines that can be expanded in vitro, genetically altered, and differentiated into cell types that can be used to treat hematopoietic diseases.


Development ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 122 (8) ◽  
pp. 2339-2348 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Pain ◽  
M.E. Clark ◽  
M. Shen ◽  
H. Nakazawa ◽  
M. Sakurai ◽  
...  

Petitte, J.N., Clarck, M.E., Verrinder Gibbins, A. M. and R. J. Etches (1990; Development 108, 185–189) demonstrated that chicken early blastoderm contains cells able to contribute to both somatic and germinal tissue when injected into a recipient embryo. However, these cells were neither identified nor maintained in vitro. Here, we show that chicken early blastoderm contains cells characterised as putative avian embryonic stem (ES) cells that can be maintained in vitro for long-term culture. These cells exhibit features similar to those of murine ES cells such as typical morphology, strong reactivity toward specific antibodies, cytokine-dependent extended proliferation and high telomerase activity. These cells also present high capacities to differentiate in vitro into various cell types including cells from ectodermic, mesodermic and endodermic lineages. Production of chimeras after injection of the cultivated cells reinforced the view that our culture system maintains in vitro some avian putative ES cells.


2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (20) ◽  
pp. 7539-7549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Hamazaki ◽  
Sarah M. Kehoe ◽  
Toru Nakano ◽  
Naohiro Terada

ABSTRACT The homeobox gene Nanog is a key intrinsic determinant of self renewal in embryonic stem (ES) cells, and its repression leads ES cells to selectively differentiate into primitive endoderm. Although Nanog repression occurs at the outermost layer of ES cell aggregates independent of the leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF)/STAT3 pathway, it is largely undetermined what external cues and intracellular signals cause the event. Of interest, addition of the tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor, sodium vanadate, selectively repressed Nanog transcription without any detectable changes in upstream transcriptional regulators Oct3/4 and Sox2. Furthermore, sodium vanadate induced primitive endoderm differentiation, even in the inner cells of ES cell aggregates. Expression of Gata6 and Zfp42, two putative downstream Nanog effectors, was also increased and decreased by the addition of sodium vanadate, respectively, but these changes were eliminated by exogenous Nanog expression. The effects of sodium vanadate were abrogated by Grb2 deficiency or by the addition of the Mek inhibitor, PD98059. Indeed, PD98059 prevented Nanog repression induced by ES cell aggregation as well. Furthermore, transfection of a constitutive active Mek mutant into ES cells induced Nanog repression and primitive endoderm differentiation. These data indicate that the Grb2/Mek pathway primarily mediates Nanog gene repression upon ES cell differentiation into primitive endoderm.


Circulation ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 118 (suppl_18) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingbo Yan ◽  
Jianyong Hu ◽  
Iris I Mueller ◽  
William H Heaton ◽  
Wan-Der Wang ◽  
...  

The molecular factors that regulate cardiac differentiation have been extensively studied, yet, relatively little is known about how cardiomyocytes acquire atrial versus ventricular characteristics. Embryonic stem (ES) cells, which have the potential to differentiate to a wide array of distinct cell types, including most types of cardiovascular cells, offer a pertinent in vitro model to work out the molecular mechanisms of atrial specification and differentiation. We discovered that the secreted antagonist of BMP signaling, Protein Related to Dan and Cerberus (PRDC, also called Gremlin2) leads to a surge in cardiomyocytic differentiation when applied to mouse ES-derived cardiac progenitor cells. This property is unique to PRDC among tested BMP antagonists. Lineage expansion is restricted to cardiomyocytes, with the differentiation of endodermal, blood, endothelial and neuronal cells being unaffected. Using molecular and electrophysiological analyses, we show that PRDC-induced cardiomyocytes acquire atrial characteristics. Consistent with the in vitro results, we found that injection of PRDC mRNA into the developing zebrafish embryo leads to supernumerary contracting areas. The ectopic cardiomyocytes express atrial-, but not ventricular- specific cardiac genes. We determined that PRDC treatment induces the expression of COUP-TFII, a known transcriptional regulator of atrial differentiation, but suppresses Notch signaling. Inhibition of Notch is sufficient to induce atrial-specific genes; however, blocking Notch does not expand the cardiogenic fields. Taken together, our data suggest that antagonism of BMP and Notch signaling by PRDC is a critical early step in the specification, expansion and differentiation of atrial progenitor cells. This information might be relevant for treating atrial degeneration, as well as for understanding the etiology of atrial fibrillation.


2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Rossant

The mammalian blastocyst is the source of the most pluripotent stem cells known: embryonic stem (ES) cells. However, ES cells are not totipotent; in mouse chimeras, they do not contribute to extra-embryonic cell types of the trophectoderm (TE) and primitive endoderm (PrE) lineages. Understanding the genetic pathways that control pluripotency v. extra-embryonic lineage restriction is key to understanding not only normal embryonic development, but also how to reprogramme adult cells to pluripotency. The trophectoderm and primitive endoderm lineages also provide the first signals that drive patterned differentiation of the pluripotent epiblast cells of the embryo. My laboratory has produced permanent mouse cell lines from both the TE and the PrE, termed trophoblast stem (TS) and eXtra-embryonic ENdoderm (XEN) cells. We have used these cells to explore the genetic and molecular hierarchy of lineage restriction and identify the key factors that distinguish the ES cell v. the TS or XEN cell fate. The major molecular pathways of lineage commitment defined in mouse embryos and stem cells are probably conserved across mammalian species, but more comparative studies of lineage development in embryos of non-rodent mammals will likely yield interesting differences in terms of timing and details.


1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Dinsmore ◽  
Judson Ratliff ◽  
Terry Deacon ◽  
Peyman Pakzaba ◽  
Douglas Jacoby ◽  
...  

The controlled differentiation of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells into near homogeneous populations of both neurons and skeletal muscle cells that can survive and function in vivo after transplantation is reported. We show that treatment of pluripotent ES cells with retinoic acid (RA) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) induce differentiation of these cells into highly enriched populations of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) expressing neurons and skeletal myoblasts, respectively. For neuronal differentiation, RA alone is sufficient to induce ES cells to differentiate into neuronal cells that show properties of postmitotic neurons both in vitro and in vivo. In vivo function of RA-induced neuronal cells was demonstrated by transplantation into the quinolinic acid lesioned striatum of rats (a rat model for Huntington's disease), where cells integrated and survived for up to 6 wk. The response of embryonic stem cells to DMSO to form muscle was less dramatic than that observed for RA. DMSO-induced ES cells formed mixed populations of muscle cells composed of cardiac, smooth, and skeletal muscle instead of homogeneous populations of a single muscle cell type. To determine whether the response of ES cells to DMSO induction could be further controlled, ES cells were stably transfected with a gene coding for the muscle-specific regulatory factor, MyoD. When induced with DMSO, ES cells constitutively expressing high levels of MyoD differentiated exclusively into skeletal myoblasts (no cardiac or smooth muscle cells) that fused to form myotubes capable of spontaneous contraction. Thus, the specific muscle cell type formed was controlled by the expression of MyoD. These results provided evidence that the specific cell type formed (whether it be muscle, neuronal, or other cell types) can be controlled in vitro. Further, these results demonstrated that ES cells can provide a source of multiple differentiated cell types that can be used for transplantation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuya S. Tanaka

The embryonic stem (ES) cell is a stem cell derived from early embryos that can indefinitely repeat self-renewing cell division cycles as an undifferentiated cell in vitro and give rise to all specialised cell types in the body. However, manipulating ES cell differentiation in vitro is a challenge due to, at least in part, heterogeneous gene induction. Recent experimental evidence has demonstrated that undifferentiated mouse ES cells maintained in culture exhibit heterogeneous expression of Dppa3, Nanog, Rex1, Pecam1 and Zscan4 as well as genes (Brachyury/T, Rhox6/9 and Twist2) normally expressed in specialised cell types. The Nanog-negative, Rex1-negative or T-positive ES cell subpopulation has a unique differentiation potential. Thus, studying the mechanism that generates ES cell subpopulations will improve manipulation of ES cell fate and help our understanding of the nature of embryonic development.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Baillie-Johnson ◽  
Susanne C van den Brink ◽  
Tina Balayo ◽  
David A Turner ◽  
Alfonso Martinez Arias

Dissociated mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells were cultured to form aggregates in small volumes of basal medium in U-bottomed, non tissue-culture-treated 96-well plates and subsequently maintained in suspension culture. After growth for 48 hours, the aggregates are competent to respond to ubiquitous experimental signals which result in their symmetry-breaking and generation of defined polarised structures by 96 hours. It is envisaged that this system can be applied both to the study of early developmental events and more broadly to the processes of self-organisation and cellular decision-making. It may also provide a suitable niche for the generation of cell types present in the embryo but unobtainable from conventional adherent culture.


Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (10) ◽  
pp. 3148-3152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Paglialunga ◽  
Annalisa Fico ◽  
Ingram Iaccarino ◽  
Rosario Notaro ◽  
Lucio Luzzatto ◽  
...  

Abstract Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) (EC 1.1.1.42) is an essential enzyme for the rapid production of NADPH, as required on exposure to oxidative stress. Mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells can produce all embryonic and fetal/adult cell types. By studying the in vitro differentiation of embryoid bodies produced from G6pdΔ ES cells that are totally unable to produce G6PD protein, we found that these cells are able to differentiate into mesodermal cells, cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes, and primitive erythroid cells. However, we show here that, after the hemoglobin switch has taken place, definitive erythrocytes die by apoptosis. This apoptotic death is delayed by reducing agents and by a caspase inhibitor, but it is prevented only by the restoration of G6PD activity. Thus, G6PD proves indispensable for definitive erythropoiesis.


2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rathjen ◽  
S. Dunn ◽  
M. D. Bettess ◽  
P. D. Rathjen

The controlled differentiation of pluripotent cells will be a prerequisite for many cell therapies. We have previously reported homogeneous conversion of embryonic stem (ES) cells in vitro to early primitive ectoderm-like (EPL) cells, equivalent to early primitive ectoderm, an obligatory differentiation intermediate between ES cells and somatic cell populations. Early primitive ectoderm-like cells differentiated within aggregates form mesodermal lineages at the expense of ectoderm. In this work we demonstrate that the failure of EPL cells to form ectodermal cell types does not reflect an inherent restriction in developmental potential. Early primitive ectoderm-like cells form ectodermal derivatives such as neurons in response to neural inducers such as retinoic acid, or when differentiated in the environment provided by ES cell embryoid bodies. This could be explained by signals from the extraembryonic cell type visceral endoderm which forms in differentiating ES cell but not EPL cell aggregates. Consistent with this possibility, culture of EPL cell aggregates in the presence of visceral endoderm-like signals did not prevent differentiation of the pluripotent cells, but resulted in suppression of mesoderm formation. These results suggest a role for visceral endoderm in regulation of germ layer specification from pluripotent cells, and can be integrated into a model for cell differentiation in vitro and in vivo.


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