Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

Efficient endoderm induction from human pluripotent stem cells by logically directing signals controlling lineage bifurcations

  • Kyle M Loh
  • , Lay Teng Ang
  • , Jingyao Zhang
  • , Vibhor Kumar
  • , Jasmine Ang
  • , Jun Qiang Auyeong
  • , Kian Leong Lee
  • , Siew Hua Choo
  • , Christina Y Y Lim
  • , Massimo Nichane
  • , Junru Tan
  • , Monireh Soroush Noghabi
  • , Lisa Azzola
  • , Elizabeth Siew-Sun Ng
  • , Jens Duruthy-Duruthy
  • , Vittorio Sebastiano
  • , Lorenz Poellinger
  • , Andrew G Elefanty
  • , Edouard Stanley
  • , Chen Qingfeng
  • Shyam Prabhakar, Irving L Weissman, Bing Lim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) differentiation typically yields heterogeneous populations. Knowledge of signals controlling embryonic lineage bifurcations could efficiently yield desired cell types through exclusion of alternate fates. Therefore, we revisited signals driving induction and anterior-posterior patterning of definitive endoderm to generate a coherent roadmap for endoderm differentiation. With striking temporal dynamics, BMP and Wnt initially specified anterior primitive streak (progenitor to endoderm), yet, 24 hr later, suppressed endoderm and induced mesoderm. At lineage bifurcations, cross-repressive signals separated mutually exclusive fates; TGF-beta and BMP/MAPK respectively induced pancreas versus liver from endoderm by suppressing the alternate lineage. We systematically blockaded alternate fates throughout multiple consecutive bifurcations, thereby efficiently differentiating multiple hPSC lines exclusively into endoderm and its derivatives. Comprehensive transcriptional and chromatin mapping of highly pure endodermal populations revealed that endodermal enhancers existed in a surprising diversity of pre-enhancer states before activation, reflecting the establishment of a permissive chromatin landscape as a prelude to differentiation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)237 - 252
Number of pages16
JournalCell Stem Cell
Volume14
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Cite this