The following study was conducted by Scientists from Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; The Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Department of Orthopedic of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJU-UoE Institute), Zhejiang University School of Medicine, International Campus, Zhejiang University, Haining, China; Department of Informative Genetics, Environment and Genome Research Centre, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan. Study is published in Stem Cell Reports Journal – Cell Press Publishing as detailed below.
Stem Cell Reports Journal – Cell Press Publishing (2020)
Naive Human Embryonic Stem Cells Can Give Rise to Cells with a Trophoblast-like Transcriptome and Methylome
Highlights
- Naive hESCs can be transdifferentiated to hTSC-like cells and purified by FACS
- Transdifferentiated hTSCs (tdhTSCs) are similar to hTSCs from placenta
- tdhTSCs have placenta-like methylome
- Modest methylation abnormalities are observed in tdhTSCs
Summary
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) readily differentiate to somatic or germ lineages but have impaired ability to form extra-embryonic lineages such as placenta or yolk sac. Here, we demonstrate that naive hESCs can be converted into cells that exhibit the cellular and molecular phenotypes of human trophoblast stem cells (hTSCs) derived from human placenta or blastocyst. The resulting “transdifferentiated” hTSCs show reactivation of core placental genes, acquisition of a placenta-like methylome, and the ability to differentiate to extravillous trophoblasts and syncytiotrophoblasts. Modest differences are observed between transdifferentiated and placental hTSCs, most notably in the expression of certain imprinted loci. These results suggest that naive hESCs can differentiate to extra-embryonic lineage and demonstrate a new way of modeling human trophoblast specification and placental methylome establishment.
Source:
Stem Cell Reports Journal – Cell Press Publishing
URL: https://www.cell.com/stem-cell-reports/fulltext/S2213-6711(20)30224-1
Citation:
Cinkornpumin, J. K., S. Y. Kwon, et al. (2020). “Naive Human Embryonic Stem Cells Can Give Rise to Cells with a Trophoblast-like Transcriptome and Methylome.” Stem Cell Reports 15(1): 198-213.
