The state of a cell is defined by the genes it transcribes and the epigenetic landscape that regulates their expression. Pluripotent cells have markedly different epigenetic signatures when compared with differentiated cells. Permissive chromatin, high occurrence of bivalent domains, and low levels of heterochromatin allow pluripotent cells to react to distinctive stimuli and undergo changes of...

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are cell lines derived from the mammalian pre-implantation embryo. Here we assess the impact of derivation and culture conditions on both functional potency and ESC transcriptional identity. Individual ESCs cultured in either two small-molecule inhibitors (2i) or with knockout serum replacement (KOSR), but not serum, can generate high-level chimeras regardless of how...

When pluripotency factors are removed, embryonic stem cells (ESCs) undergo spontaneous differentiation, which, among other lineages, also gives rise to cardiac sublineages, including chamber cardiomyocytes and pacemaker cells. Such heterogeneity complicates the use of ESC-derived heart cells in therapeutic and diagnostic applications. We sought to direct ESCs to differentiate specifically into ...

germline and somatic stem cells are distinct types of stem cells that are dedicated to reproduction and somatic tissue regeneration, respectively. germline stem cells (gscs), which can self-renew and generate gametes, are unique stem cells in that they are solely dedicated to transmit genetic information from generation to generation. we developed a strategy for the establishment of germline st...

Numerous studies have focused on the transcriptional signatures that underlie the maintenance of embryonic stem cell (ESC) pluripotency. However, it remains unclear whether ESC retain transcriptional aberrations seen in in vitro cultured embryos. Here we report the first global transcriptional profile comparison between ESC generated from either in vitro cultured or in vivo derived primate embr...

Embryonic stem cells co-express Oct4 and Oct1, a related protein with similar DNA-binding specificity. To study the role of Oct1 in ESC pluripotency and transcriptional control, we constructed germline and inducible-conditional Oct1-deficient ESC lines. ESCs lacking Oct1 show normal appearance, self-renewal and growth but manifest defects upon differentiation. They fail to form beating cardiomy...

Stem cells are unique pools of cells that are crucial for embryonic development and maintenance of adult tissue homeostasis. The landmark Nobel Prize winning research by Yamanaka and colleagues to induce pluripotency in somatic cells has reshaped the field of stem cell research. The complications related to the usage of pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in human medicine, particularly ESC...

Identification of functionally relevant differences between induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and reference embryonic stem cells (ESC) remains a central question for therapeutic applications. Differences in gene expression between iPSC and ESC have been examined by microarray and more recently with RNA-SEQ technologies. We here report an in depth analyses of nuclear and cytoplasmic transcri...

PURPOSE This study aimed to develop a feasible and efficient method for generating embryonic stem cell (ESC)-like induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from human Tenon's capsule fibroblasts (HTFs) through the expression of a defined set of transcription factors, which will have significant application value for ophthalmic personalized regenerative medicine. METHODS HTFs were harvested from fr...

In vivo hematopoietic generation occurs in waves of primitive and definitive cell emergence. Differentiation cultures of pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs) offer an accessible source of hematopoietic cells for blood-related research and therapeutic strategies. However, despite many approaches, it remains a goal to robustly generate hematopoietic progenitor and stem cells (HP/SCs) in vitro ...