Cardiogenic programming of human pluripotent stem cells by dose-controlled activation of EOMES.

ABSTRACT: Master cell fate determinants are thought to induce specific cell lineages in gastrulation by orchestrating entire gene programs. The T-box transcription factor EOMES (eomesodermin) is crucially required for the development of the heart-yet it is equally important for endoderm specification suggesting that it may act in a context-dependent manner. Here, we define an unrecognized interplay between EOMES and the WNT signaling pathway in controlling cardiac induction by using loss and gain-of-function approaches in human embryonic stem cells. Dose-dependent EOMES induction alone can fully replace a cocktail of signaling molecules otherwise essential for the specification of cardiogenic mesoderm. Highly efficient cardiomyocyte programming by EOMES mechanistically involves autocrine activation

SUBMITTER: Pfeiffer MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5789885 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature