Engineering aortic valves via transdifferentiating fibroblasts into valvular endothelial cells without using viruses or iPS cells.

ABSTRACT: The technology of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has enabled the conversion of somatic cells into primitive undifferentiated cells via reprogramming. This approach provides possibilities for cell replacement therapies and drug screening, but the potential risk of tumorigenesis hampers its further development and in vivo application. How to generate differentiated cells such as valvular endothelial cells (VECs) has remained a major challenge. Utilizing a combinatorial strategy of selective soluble chemicals, cytokines and substrate stiffness modulation, mouse embryonic fibroblasts are directly and efficiently transdifferentiated into induced aortic endothelial cell-like cells (iAECs), or human primary adult fibroblasts are transdifferentiated into induced valvular endothelial

SUBMITTER: Tang P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11625219 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature