Project description:Active regulatory regions in the human embryonic pancreatic progenitors were profiled by integration of transcription factor and histone modification ChIP-seq datasets. These were obtained from pancreatic progenitor cells derived in vitro from human embryonic stem cells. The purpose of this work was to study the epigenomic mechanisms involved in pancreas development.
Project description:The genomic regulatory programs that underlie human organogenesis are poorly understood. Human pancreas development, in particular, has pivotal implications for pancreatic regeneration, cancer, and diabetes. We have now created maps of transcripts, active enhancers, and transcription factor networks in pancreatic multipotent progenitors obtained from human embryos, or derived in vitro from human embryonic stem cells. This revealed that artificial progenitors recapitulate salient transcriptional and epigenomic features of their natural counterparts. Using this resource, we show that TEAD1, a transcription factor controlled by Hippo signaling, is a core component of the combinatorial code of pancreatic progenitor enhancers. TEAD thus activates genes encoding regulators of signaling pathways and stage-specific transcription factors that are essential for normal pancreas development. Accordingly, chemical and genetic perturbations of TEAD and its coactivator YAP inhibited expression of known regulators such as FGFR2 and SOX9, and suppressed the proliferation and expansion of mouse and zebrafish pancreatic progenitors. These findings provide a resource of active enhancers and transcripts in human pancreatic multipotent progenitors, and uncover a central role of TEAD and YAP as signal-responsive regulators of the transcriptional program of early pancreas development.
Project description:Our lab identified Sox9 as a specific marker and maintenance factor of mouse pancreatic progenitors (Seymour et al., PNAS, 2007). Here was wanted to identify direct targets of Sox9 in pancreatic progenitors. However, due to the limited number of pancreatic progenitors in the developing mouse, we used in vitro derived pancreatic progenitors to determine direct targets of Sox9. We performed ChIP-seq analysis for Sox9 and determined its direct targets in the human genome. Using pancreatic progenitors that were derived from human embryonic stem cells, we were able to successfully find targets that were pancreas specific as well as those targets that are important in other endodermal lineages.
Project description:Skin biopsies were obtained from a patient with Mitchell-Riley syndrome caused by a homozygous frame-shift mutation (c.1129C>T) in the RFX6 gene that leads to a premature stop codon (p.Arg377X). The patient suffered severe pancreatic agenesis, in common with other Mitchell-Riley syndrome patients. Fibroblasts from the biopsy were reprogrammed to generate a human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) line (MRS2-6). To assess the effects of the mutant RFX6 allele on pancreas formation and identify direct targets of the transcription factor RFX6, MRS2-6 and H9 control human embryonic stem cells (hESC) were differentiated into pancreatic progenitors. Samples were harvested for RNA isolation and whole transcriptome analysis at days 4 (definitive endoderm), 7 and 8 (gut tube), and 12 (pancreatic progenitors).
Project description:During embryonic development, islet progenitors are specified from pancreatic duct cells by transient expression of Neurog3, a transcription factor necessary and sufficient for initiation of islet development. To understand the dynamics of Neurog3-dependent endocrine cell fate determination, in this study we used ATAC-Seq to identify accessible genomic regions of purified duct, endocrine progenitor, and endocrine cells isolated from mice with varying Neurog3 dosage
Project description:Full protein measurements from in vitro differentiation of the human embryonic stem cell line HUES8 into pancreatic progenitors (PP) and pancreatic duct-like organoids (PDLOs). Protein intensities were quantified by mass spectrometry analysis from PPs at day 13 and from PDLOs at day 59. Please see related publication “Modelling Plasticity and Dysplasia of Pancreatic Ductal Organoids Derived from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells” for experimental details.
