胚胎干细胞体外诱导分化

胚胎干细胞能在体外长期不断自我更新,具有高度分化潜能,可分化成胎儿和成体的几乎所有类型的细胞,如心肌细胞、神经细胞、上皮细胞、肝细胞、血细胞、胰岛细胞、脂肪细胞及生殖细胞等.在细胞治疗和组织器官替代治疗、发育生物学等的研究中将具有广阔的应用前景.目前已有多种胚胎干细胞体外定向诱导的报道.本文从体外诱导分化影响因素和几种主要诱导细胞类型进行分析和总结,为胚胎干细胞的诱导分化研究提供参考资料.     

诱导小鼠胚胎干细胞在体外分化为骨骼肌细胞的实验研究

小鼠胚胎干细胞是从胚泡未分化的内部细胞团中得到的干细胞,它在体外培养的环境中具有无限增殖、自我更新以及多向分化的特性。将小鼠胚胎干细胞在体外诱导分化为肌肉细胞,并且利用这些分化得来的肌肉细胞治疗肌肉退行性疾病,是干细胞研究领域的热点。该实验的目的在于筛选小鼠胚胎干细胞向骨骼肌细胞定向分化的实验条件,有效地将体外单层贴壁培养的小鼠胚胎干细胞诱导分化成骨骼肌细胞。最终发现,10-8mol/L维甲酸(retinoid acid,RA)+0.5%二甲基亚砜(dimethyl sulfoxide,DMSO)组诱导小鼠胚胎干细胞在体外分化成骨骼肌前体细胞的效率最高,分化得到的骨骼肌前体细胞经进一步纯化,能分化为多核的肌管。该实验为治疗肌肉退行性疾病提供了细胞来源,也为研究小鼠胚胎干细胞分化为骨骼肌细胞的机制提供了有利的条件。     

胚胎干细胞模型的研究进展

胚胎干细胞是一种具有自我更新和多向分化潜能的细胞群,它的体外扩增、定向诱导分化在未来个体发育、基因和细胞治疗以及组织工程等方面的研究中具有不可估量的应用价值。简要回顾胚胎干细胞的研究进展和存在问题．对其未来的发展进行展望。     

人胚胎干细胞向生殖细胞分化的研究进展

小鼠胚胎干细胞体外已成功诱导分化为配子细胞,人胚胎干细胞理论上也具备分化为生殖细胞的潜能。本文从影响人胚胎干细胞体外向生殖系分化的基因调控和干细胞小生境（niche）方面进行综述,并指出胚胎干细胞在生殖医学及不孕治疗中的研究方向和应用前景。     

胚胎干细胞的生物学特性及体外诱导分化

来源于早期胚胎的胚胎干细胞 (ES)和胎儿生殖脊干细胞 (EG)可在未分化状态下长期增殖培养 ,并保持其多向分化潜能 .体外培养ES细胞的条件已趋于稳定 ,国内外建立了来自人和多种动物早期胚胎的ES细胞系 .某些细胞因子和化学物质等可定向诱导ES细胞分化为各种不同类型的组织细胞 .ES细胞在胚胎发育、细胞分化、转基因动物、移植治疗、药物开发等领域具有广阔的应用前景 .     

诱导胚胎干细胞向神经细胞分化方法的研究与探讨

胚胎干细胞(ES细胞)是一种能够在体外进行不断自我更新,并具有多种分化潜能的细胞。胚胎干细胞向神经细胞诱导分化的研究进展迅速,相关实验技术和理论也不断发展。总结了近年来各国研究者诱导小鼠和人胚胎干细胞向神经细胞分化的方法,分析了一些方法的原理并初步探讨其相关的分子机制,并提出一些可行性新方法。胚胎干细胞向神经细胞诱导分化因其体外的可操作性、来源的广泛性及质量可控性将有可能成为临床上治疗神经系统疾病的有效方法。     

动物胚胎干细胞诱导分化的研究进展

胚胎干细胞 (ES细胞 )是从动物早期胚胎的内细胞团或原始生殖细胞分离出来的具有发育全能性的一种未分化的无限增殖细胞系 ,ES细胞能体外诱导分化为神经细胞、肌肉细胞、成纤维细胞等各种细胞。综述了动物的ES细胞的分化诱导机理及目前体外诱导分化的研究现状     

胚胎干细胞定向分化为心肌细胞研究进展

胚胎干细胞在体外可分化为 3个胚层的所有组织细胞。诱导人类胚胎干细胞定向分化为心肌细胞可为心肌梗死、心肌坏死等重大心脏疾病患者实施细胞治疗 ,也可作为种子细胞 ,用于构建供器官移植用的人造心脏 ;进一步可研究心肌细胞发育分化的分子机理及更直观的用于体外筛选人类心血管药物等。对人类胚胎干细胞及其定向分化为心肌细胞分子机理的研究进展及其所面临的问题作一综述。     

诱导胚胎干细胞心肌定向分化的方法及其机制

胚胎干细胞是具有分化为各种类型组织细胞潜能的全能干细胞,可在体外大量扩增,细胞因子、激素、诱导剂和细胞内转录因子等可诱导和调控胚胎干细胞进行心肌细胞定向分化．这将使干细胞移植治疗心肌损伤性疾病成为可能。该文介绍胚胎干细胞定向心肌分化的诱导因素及其机制的研究进展。     

哺乳动物精原干细胞的研究进展

精原干细胞是雄性体内可以永久维持的成体干细胞,它具有自我更新和分化的能力,保证了雄性个体生命过程中精子发生的持续进行,从而实现将遗传信息传递给下一代。精原千细胞不仅可在体外实现长期培养或诱导分化为各级生精细胞,并且可在特定条件下将其诱导去分化成为多能性干细胞。同样,这种多能性干细胞如同胚胎干细胞,可被诱导形成造血细胞、神经元细胞、肌细胞等多种类型细胞。鉴于其独具的生物学特性,精原干细胞在揭示精子的发生机制、治疗雄性不育和转基因动物等研究中具有重要价值。该文对精原干细胞在生物学特性、纯化培养、移植、体外诱导分化及其相关调控方面的各项研究进行了小结,综述了近年来的研究历程和最新研究成果。     

Over-Expression of HSP47 Augments Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Smooth Muscle Differentiation and Chemotaxis

In the recent decade, embryonic stem cells (ESC) have emerged as an attractive cell source of smooth muscle cells (SMC) for vascular tissue engineering owing to their unlimited self-renewal and differentiation capacities. Despite their promise in therapy, their efficacy is still hampered by the lack of definitive SMC differentiation mechanisms and difficulties in successful trafficking of the ESC towards a site of injury or target tissue. Heat shock protein 47 (HSP47) is a 47-kDa molecular chaperone that is required for the maturation of various types of collagen and has been shown to be a critical modulator of different pathological and physiological processes. To date, the role of HSP47 on ESC to SMC differentiation or ESC chemotaxis is not known and may represent a potential molecular approach by which ESC can be manipulated to increase their efficacy in clinic. We provide evidence that HSP47 is highly expressed during ESC differentiation into the SMC lineage and that HSP47 reduction results in an attenuation of the differentiation. Our experiments using a HSP47 plasmid transfection system show that gene over-expression is sufficient to induce ESC-SMC differentiation, even in the absence of exogenous stimuli. Furthermore, HSP47 over-expression in ESC also increases their chemotaxis and migratory responses towards a panel of chemokines, likely via the upregulation of chemokine receptors. Our findings provide direct evidence of induced ESC migration and differentiation into SMC via the over-expression of HSP47, thus identifying a novel approach of molecular manipulation that can potentially be exploited to improve stem cell therapy for vascular repair and regeneration.     

小鼠胚胎干细胞向生殖细胞分化的研究

小鼠胚胎干细胞(ESC)在体外可以分化为多种细胞类型,其中包括各阶段的生殖细胞,甚至精细胞和成熟卵母细胞。ESC向生殖细胞分化的效率受到包括生长因子、激素和体细胞等多种因素的影响,在体外形成的是雌性配子还是雄性配子与ESC是XX型还是XY型没有必然联系。简要综述了小鼠生殖细胞在体内外的分化发育、性别决定和增殖等,并总结和展望了ESC向生殖细胞分化研究面临的问题和应用前景。     

In vitro strategies for human gametes production from stem cells

Embryonic stem cells (ESC) are self-renewal and pluripotent cells that are able to differentiate in vitro into several cell types in favourable conditions. Technical protocols for in vitro gametes production have been developed in mice and human species. The functionality of such differentiated cells is not always analysed and an early meiotic arrest is a current observation. These kinds of experimentations have also been tested from human induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC). However, differentiation ends shortly at the primordial germ cell stage.     

Embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived cardiomyocytes: A good candidate for cell therapy applications

During the last decade, embryonic stem cells (ESC) have unleashed new avenues in the field of developmental biology and emerged as a potential tool to understand the molecular mechanisms taking place during the process of differentiation from the embryonic stage to adult phenotype. Their uniqueness lies in retaining the capacity of unlimited proliferation and to differentiate into all somatic cells. Together with promising results from rodent models, ESC has raised great hope among for human ESC-based cell replacement therapy. ESC could potentially revolutionize medicine by providing a powerful and renewable cell source capable of replacing or repairing tissues that have been damaged in almost all degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, myocardial infarction (MI) and diabetes. Somatic stem cells are an attractive option to explore for transplantation because they are autologous, but their differentiation potential is very limited. Currently, the major sources of somatic cells used for basic research and clinical trials come from bone marrow. But their widespread acceptability has not been gained because many of the results are confusing and inconsistent. The focus here is on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), using methods to induce their differentiation to cardiomyocytes in vitro. Their properties in relation to primary human cardiomyocytes and their ability to integrate into host myocardium have been investigated into how they can enhance cardiac function. However, important aspects of stem cell biology and the transplantation process remain unresolved. In summary, this review updates the recent progress of ES cell research in cell therapy, discusses the problems in the practical utility of ESC, and evaluates how far this adjunctive experimental approach can be successful.     

Engineered heart tissue enables study of residual undifferentiated embryonic stem cell activity in a cardiac environment

Embryonic stem cell (ESC) derivatives are a promising cell source for cardiac cell therapy. Mechanistic studies upon cell injection in conventional animal models are limited by inefficient delivery and poor cell survival. As an alternative, we have used an engineered heart tissue (EHT) based on neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (CMs) cultivated with electrical field stimulation as an in vitro model to study cell injection. We injected (0.001, 0.01, and 0.1 million) and tracked (by qPCR and histology) undifferentiated yellow‐fluorescent protein transgenic mouse ESCs and Flk1 + /PDGFRα+ cardiac progenitor (CPs) cells, to investigate the effect of the cardiac environment on cell differentiation, as well as to test whether our in vitro model system could recapitulate the formation of teratoma‐like structures commonly observed upon in vivo ESC injection. By 8 days post‐injection, ESCs were spatially segregated from the cardiac cell population; however, ESC injection increased survival of CMs. The presence of ESCs blocked electrical conduction through the tissue, resulting in a 46% increase in the excitation threshold. Expression of mouse cardiac troponin I, was markedly increased in CP injected constructs compared to ESC injected constructs at all time points and cell doses tested. As early as 2 weeks, epithelial and ganglion‐like structures were observed in ESC injected constructs. By 4 weeks of ESC injection, teratoma‐like structures containing neural, epithelial, and connective tissue were observed in the constructs. Non‐cardiac structures were observed in the CP injected constructs only after extended culture (4 weeks) and only at high cell doses, suggesting that these cells require further enrichment or differentiation prior to transplantation. Our data indicate that the cardiac environment of host tissue and electrical field stimulation did not preferentially guide the differentiation of ESCs towards the cardiac lineage. In the same environment, injection of CP resulted in a more robust cardiac differentiation than injection of ESC. Our data demonstrate that the model‐system developed herein can be used to study the functional effects of candidate stem cells on the host myocardium, as well as to measure the residual activity of undifferentiated cells present in the mixture. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2011; 108:704–719. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Factors from Human Embryonic Stem Cell-derived Fibroblast-like Cells Promote Topology-dependent Hepatic Differentiation in Primate Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

The future clinical use of embryonic stem cell (ESC)-based hepatocyte replacement therapy depends on the development of an efficient procedure for differentiation of hepatocytes from ESCs. Here we report that a high density of human ESC-derived fibroblast-like cells (hESdFs) supported the efficient generation of hepatocyte-like cells with functional and mature hepatic phenotypes from primate ESCs and human induced pluripotent stem cells. Molecular and immunocytochemistry analyses revealed that hESdFs caused a rapid loss of pluripotency and induced a sequential endoderm-to-hepatocyte differentiation in the central area of ESC colonies. Knockdown experiments demonstrated that pluripotent stem cells were directed toward endodermal and hepatic lineages by FGF2 and activin A secreted from hESdFs. Furthermore, we found that the central region of ESC colonies was essential for the hepatic endoderm-specific differentiation, because its removal caused a complete disruption of endodermal differentiation. In conclusion, we describe a novel in vitro differentiation model and show that hESdF-secreted factors act in concert with regional features of ESC colonies to induce robust hepatic endoderm differentiation in primate pluripotent stem cells.     

Vasculogenesis and angiogenesis in embryonic-stem-cell-derived embryoid bodies

Embryonic stem cells (ESC) have been established previously from the inner cell mass cells of mouse blastocysts. In suspension culture, they spontaneously differentiate to blood-island-containing cystic embryoid bodies (CEB). The development of blood vessels from in situ differentiating endothelial cells of blood islands, a process which we call vasculogenesis, was induced by injecting ESC into the peritoneal cavity of syngeneic mice. In the peritoneum, fusion of blood islands and formation of an in vivo-like primary capillary plexus occurred. Transplantation of ESC and ESC-derived complex and cystic embryoid bodies (ESC-CEB) onto the quail chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) induced an angiogenic response, which was directed by nonyolk sac endoderm structures. Neither yolk sac endoderm from ESC-CEB nor normal mouse yolk sac tissue induced angiogenesis on the quail CAM. Extracts from ESC-CEB stimulated the proliferation of capillary endothelial cells in vitro. Mitogenic activity increase during in vitro culture and differentiation of ESC. Almost all growth factor activity was associated with the cells. The ESC-CEB derived endothelial cell growth factor bound to heparin-sepharose. The identification of acidic fibroblast growth factor (FGF)in heparin-sepharose-purified material was accomplished by immunoblot experiments involving antibodies against acidic and basic FGF. We conclude that vasculogenesis, the development of blood vessels from in situ differentiating endothelial cells, and angiogenesis, the sprouting of capillaries from preexisting vessels are very early events during embryogenesis which can be studied using ESC differentiating in vitro. Our results suggest that vasculogenesis and angiogenesis are differently regulated.