Project description:SXO2 is one of the factors involved in maintaining self-renewal and pluripotency in hESCs. This study was performed to reveal the effects of reduced SOX2 levels in self-renewing pluripotent hESCs.
Project description:Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are self-renewing multipotent cells with regenerative, secretory and immunomodulatory capabilities that are beneficial for the treatment of various diseases. To avoid the issues that come with using tissue-derived MSCs in therapy, MSCs may be generated by the differentiation of human embryonic stems cells (hESCs) in culture. However, the changes that occur during the differentiation process have not been comprehensively characterized. Here, we combined transcriptome, proteome and phosphoproteome profiling to perform an in-depth, multi-omics study of the hESCs-to-MSCs differentiation process. Based on RNA-to-protein correlation, we determined a set of high confidence genes that are important to differentiation. Among the earliest and strongest induced proteins with extensive differential phosphorylation was AHNAK, which we hypothesized to be a defining factor in MSC biology. We observed two distinct expression waves of developmental HOX genes and an AGO2-to-AGO3 switch in gene silencing. Exploring the kinetic of non-coding ORFs during differentiation, we mapped new functions to well annotated long non-coding RNAs (CARMN, MALAT, NEAT1, LINC00152) as well as new candidates which we identified to be important to the differentiation process. Phosphoproteome analysis revealed ESC and MSC-specific phosphorylation motifs with PAK2 and RAF1 as top predicted upstream kinases in MSCs. Our data represent a rich systems-level resource on ESC-to-MSC differentiation that will be useful for the study of stem cell biology.
Project description:Mesothelium is a multipotent resident progenitor cell of the coelomic organs that functions in organogenesis, repair and possible regeneration. We used hESCs to generate mesothelium of the epithelial and mesenchymal forms. Mesenchymal derivatives of mesothelium have been previously reported to function in tissue repair by promoting and participating in angiogenesis and neovascularization. We uncovered that hESC-derived mesothelium of the mesenchymal form (MesoT) are multipotent and generate smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and pericytes and self-assemble into vessel-like networks in vitro. MesoT cells contribute to nascent coronary vessels in the repair zone of mechanically damaged neonatal mouse hearts. MesoT cells seeded onto vascular scaffolds self-assemble into vasculature capable of supporting peripheral blood flow following transplantation. Our findings demostrate the potential utility of MesoT cells in tissue repair and vascular engineering applications.
Project description:Human pluripotent stem cells (hESCs) are an excellent model to dissect the transcriptional changes that direct cell fate decisions and lineage specification during development. Utilizing directed differentiation protocols to derive definitive endoderm, splanchnic mesoderm, neural progenitor cells (NPCs), and pre-neural crest stem cells (NCSCs) from hESCs. Transcriptional profiling via RNA-seq on hESCs and cells differentiated to all three germ layers revealed lineage specific transcriptional networks that remodeled many cell processes, including epigenetic status, cell surface markers, cell cycle profiles, metabolic flux, and cellular signaling pathways. From this data we were able to verify that metabolic flux within NPCs and pre-NCSCs are regulated in a lineage specific manner that is distinct from endoderm and mesoderm formation.
Project description:Tissue from the telencephalon was isolated from E13.5 BALB/C mouse and allowed to culture as neurospheres in the presence of FGF2. These cultures were assessed for undifferentiated neural stem cells by the expression of Nestin and were found to be ~98% Nestin positive. Comparisons of these nestin positive neural stem cells will be made to R1 ES cells to identify the genes that are important in totipotent, self-renewing ES cells vs. commitment to the multipotent, self-renewing neural stem cell phenotype. Experiment Overall Design: this experiment include 3 samples and 4 replicates
Project description:Progenitor cells maintain self-renewing tissues throughout life by sustaining their capacity for proliferation while suppressing cell cycle exit and terminal differentiation. DNA methylation provides a potential epigenetic mechanism for the cellular memory needed to preserve the somatic progenitor state through repeated cell divisions. DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) maintains DNA methylation patterns after cellular replication. Although dispensable for embryonic stem cell maintenance, a clear role for DNMT1 in maintaining the progenitor state in constantly replenished somatic tissues, such as mammalian epidermis, is uncharacterized. Here we show that DNMT1 is essential for supporting epidermal progenitor cell function. DNMT1 protein was found enriched in undifferentiated cells, where it was required to retain proliferative stamina and suppress differentiation. In tissue, DNMT1 depletion led to exit from the progenitor cell compartment, premature differentiation and eventual tissue loss. These effects correlated with DNA methylation as genome-wide analysis revealed that a significant portion of epidermal differentiation gene promoters were methylated in self-renewing conditions but were subsequently demethylated during differentiation. Gene expression analysis: To establish a differentiation signature for primary human keratinocytes, total RNA was isolated in biologic duplicate from cells cultured in growth conditions and high calcium differentiation conditions and hybridized to Affymetrix HG-U133 2.0 Plus arrays. This gene signature was also compared to DNMT1 deficient cells cultured in growth conditions. Methylated DNA profiling: To globally characterize DNA methylation in primary human keratinocytes, genomic DNA was immunoprecipitated using a 5-methylcytidine antibody, amplified, and hybridized to NimbleGen HG18 promoter tiling arrays. Profiling was done using DNA isolated in growth conditions as well as differentiation conditions.
Project description:Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) constitute a rare cell population in bone-marrow and are capable of live-long self-renewal and production of all mature blood cell types. Cell differentiation processes are governed by epigenetic mechanisms whose study during early differentiation steps will provide insights into stem cell function and differentiation. We performed whole-genome bisulfite sequencing on HSCs and their immediate progeny, namely three different multipotent progenitor subpopulations (MPP1, MPP2, and MPP). Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and 3 different multipotent progenitor subpopulations (MPP). Three independent biological replicates each were analyzed.
Project description:We recently reported that epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs)-like cells could be derived from preimplantation embryos (named as AFSCs). Here, we established AFSCs from pre‐implantation embryos of multiple mouse strains and showed that unlike EpiSCs, the derivation efficiency of AFSCs was affected by the genetic background. We then used AFSCs lines to dissect the roles of Activin A (Act A) and basic fibroblast growth factor and reported that Act A alone was capable of maintaining self renewal but not developmental potential in vivo. Finally, we established a novel experimental system, in which AFSCs were efficiently converted to multipotent progenitor stem cells using Act A and BMP4 (named as ABSCs). Importantly, these ABSCs contributed to neural mesodermal progenitors and lateral plate mesoderm in postimplantation chimeras. Taken together, our study established a robust experimental system for the generation of specific multipotent progenitor stem cells that was self-renewable and capable of contributing to embryonic and extra-embryonic tissues.
Project description:Mechanical stress is a measure of internal resistance exhibited by a body or material when external forces, such as compression, tension, bending, etc. are applied. The study of mechanical stress on health and aging is a continuously growing field, as major changes to the extracellular matrix and cell-to-cell adhesions can result in dramatic changes to tissue stiffness during aging and diseased conditions. For example, during normal aging, many tissues including the ovaries, skin, blood vessels, and heart exhibit increased stiffness, which can result in a significant reduction in function of that organ. As such, numerous model systems have recently emerged to study the impact of mechanical and physical stress on cell and tissue health, including cell-culture conditions with matrigels and other surfaces that alter substrate stiffness and ex vivo tissue models that can apply stress directly to organs like muscle or tendons. Here, we sought to develop a novel method in an in vivo, model organism setting to study the impact of mechanical stress on aging, by increasing substrate stiffness in solid agar medium of C. elegans. To our surprise, we found shockingly limited impact of growth of C. elegans on stiffer substrates, including limited effects on cellular health, gene expression, organismal health, stress resilience, and longevity. Overall, our studies reveal that altering substrate stiffness of growth medium for C. elegans have only mild impact on animal health and longevity; however, these impacts were not nominal and open up important considerations for C. elegans biologists in standardizing agar medium choice for experimental assays.