Project description:Endothelial cells (ECs) are essential for vascular network formation and tissue homeostasis, yet the fields of tissue engineering and vascularized organoid generation still relies heavily on human umbilical vein ECs (HUVECs), which are venous, allogeneic, and difficult to mature fully. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) offer an autologous, developmentally flexible alternative, but most differentiation protocols require fluorescence-activated cell sorting, limiting scalability. Here we present a streamlined method that produces highly pure ECs directly from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) without cell sorting. Extending Wnt activation with CHIR99021 to three days maximizes mesoderm induction, and brief Notch blockade with DAPT during specification suppresses smooth-muscle commitment. The result is over 90 % CD31⁺ CD144⁺ ECs that display classic cobblestone morphology, robust DiI-acetylated LDL uptake, and capillary-like sprouting comparable to HUVECs. Bulk RNA barcoding and sequencing segregates the hESC-derived ECs from both HUVECs and undifferentiated hESCs and uncovers an arterial-skewed transcriptome: NOTCH1, DLL4, and CXCR4 are up-regulated, whereas venous markers (EPHB4, NRP2) are reduced. Enrichment of Notch-responsive pathways further supports an arterial-like identity. Although several adult functional genes (e.g., vWF, NOS3) are expressed at lower levels than in HUVECs, the protocol delivers a scalable source of developmentally relevant ECs ideal for vascularizing organoids derived from the same hPSCs and for future applications in drug screening, disease modeling, and cell-based vascular therapies.
Project description:Host cell proteins (HCPs) are process-related impurities generated during biotherapeutic protein production. HCPs can be problematic if they pose a significant metabolic demand, degrade product quality, or contaminate the final product. Here, we present an effort to create a “clean” Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell by disrupting multiple genes to eliminate HCPs. Using a model of CHO cell protein secretion, we predicted the elimination of unnecessary HCPs could have a non-negligible impact on protein production. We analyzed the total HCP content of 6-protein, 11-protein, and 14-protein knockout clones and characterized their growth in shake flasks and bioreactors. These cell lines exhibited a substantial reduction in total HCP content (40%-70%). We also observed higher productivity and improved growth characteristics, in specific clones. With the reduced HCP content, protein A and ion exchange chromatography more efficiently purified a monoclonal antibody (mAb) produced in these cells during a three-step purification process. Thus, substantial improvements can be made in protein titer and purity through large-scale HCP deletion, providing an avenue to increased quality and affordability of high-value biopharmaceuticals.
Project description:Intra- and extracellular metabolomics dataset of human dermal blood endothelial cells (HDBECs), human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), human dermal lymphatic endothelial cells (HDLECs) and intestinal lymphatic endothelial cells (iLECs) in proliferation and quiescence.
Project description:Directed differentiation of endothelial cells (ECs) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) typically takes around fourteen days, requires optimization of parameters such as hPSC seeding density and medium supplement concentration or timing, and often necessitates cell sorting to achieve high purity ECs. Overexpression of cell type-specific transcription factors in hPSCs has been shown to lead to efficient differentiation of many cell types, including neurons, astrocytes and hepatocytes. ETV2 has been identified as an essential transcription factor for endothelial cell fate commitment during development. Here, we present a simple, well-characterized differentiation method to generate ECs by overexpressing ETV2 in an inducible manner (iETV2) in hPSC cell lines. The result is a two-stage differentiation strategy, in which ECs are differentiated in a basal medium during stage I and then expanded in endothelial medium during stage II. By optimizing hPSC seeding density and differentiation medium, we generated an EC population with more than 99% pure CD31+ CD144+ cells without any cell sorting in just five days. In vitro angiogenesis potential of the iETV2-ECs was confirmed in cord formation assays and iETV2-EC uptake of acetylated LDL and response to inflammatory cytokines was confirmed. We compared transcriptomics of iETV2-ECs to the ECs generated from hPSCs via directed differentiation and confirmed similarity of gene expression profiles of ECs generated by these two different approaches. Furthermore, we found that iETV2-ECs respond to previously identified Wnt signaling agonist CHIR99021 and TGFβ signaling inhibitor RepSox to acquire aspects of brain EC phenotype. These findings underscore that iETV2-ECs can serve as easily scalable endothelial source, powering a variety of research applications, potentially including in vitro blood-brain barrier modeling.
Project description:Human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells and human embryonic stem (hES) cells differentiate into cells of the endothelial lineage, but derivation of cells with human umbilical cord blood endothelial colony forming cell (ECFC)-like properties has not been reported. Here we describe a novel serum- and stromal cell-free ECFC differentiation protocol for the derivation of clinically relevant numbers of ECFCs (> 108) from hiPS and hES cells. We identified NRP-1+CD31+ selected cells that displayed a stable endothelial phenotype exhibiting high clonal proliferative potential, extensive replicative capacity, formation of human vessels that inosculated with host vasculature upon transplantation, but lacking in teratoma formation in vivo. We also identified NRP-1-VEGF165-KDR-mediated activation of KDR as a critical mechanism for the emergence and derivation of ECFCs from hiPS and hES cells. This protocol advances the field by generating highly replicative but stable endothelial cells for use as a potential cell therapy for human clinical disorders. Transcriptome sequencing of undifferentiated day 0 hiPS cells, Day 3 differentiated hiPS-derived mesoderm proginator cells, Day 12 hiPS-derived NRP-1+CD31+ cells, Day 12 H9-hES-derived NRP-1+CD31+ cells and cord blood-derived Endothelial colony forming cells.