• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
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• 2002.06a
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• pp.19-19
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• 2002

This study was to examine whether the in vitro differentiated neural cells derived from human embryonic stem (hES, MB03) cells can be survived and expressed tyrosin hydroxylase(TH) in grafted normal or PD rat brain. To differentiate in vitro into neural cells, embryoid bodies (EB: for 5 days, without mitogen) were formed from hES cells, neural progenitor cells(neurosphere, for 7-10 days, 20 ng/㎖ of bFGF added N2 medium) were produced from EB, and then finally neurospheres were differentiated into mature neuron cells in N2 medium(without bFGF) for 2 weeks. In normal rat brain, neural progenitor cells or mature neuron cells (1×10/sup 7/ cells/㎖) were grafted to the striatum of normal rats. After 2 weeks, when the survival of grafted hES cells was examined by immunohistochemical analysis, the neural progenitor cell group indicated higher BrdU, NeuN＋, MAP2＋ and GFAP＋ than mature neuron cell group in grafted sites of normal rats. This result demonstrated that the in vivo differentiation of grafted hES cells be increased simultaneously in both of neuronal and glial cell type. Also, neural progenitor cell grafted normal rats expressed more TH pattern than mature neuron cells. Based on this data, as a preliminary test, when the neural progenitor cells were grafted into the striatum of 6-hydroxydopamine lesioned PD rats, we confirmed the cell survival (by double staining of Nissl and NeuN) and TH expression. This result suggested that in vitro differentiated neural progenitor cells derived from hES cells are more usable than mature neuron cells for the neural cell grafting in animal model and those grafted cells were survived and expressed TH in normal or PD rat brain.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.93-99
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• 2005

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) derived from the inner cell mass of blastocysts have the ability to renew themselves and to differentiate into cell types of all lineage. The present study was carried out to investigate whether the Wnt signaling pathway is related to maintaining self-renewal of hESCs. Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 (GSK-3) inhibitor, BIO ((2'Z,3'E)-6-Bromoindirubin-3'-oxime) was treated to Miz-hES1 line for activation of Wnt signaling pathway. BIO-nontreated hESCs (control) and BID-treated hESCs were cultured for 5 days in the modified feeder-free system. During the culture of hESCs, differences were observed in the colony morphology between 2 groups. Controls were spread outwards whereas BIO-nontreated hESCs were clumped in the center and the differentiated cells were spreading outwards in the edges. The results of stem cell specific marker staining indicated that control were differentiated in large part whereas BIO-treated hESCs maintain self-renewal in the center of the colony. The results of lineage marker staining suggested that outer cells of the hESC colony were differentiated to the neuronal progenitor cells in both control and BIO-treated hESC. These results indicate that Wnt signaling is related to self-renewal in hESCs. In addition, control group showed higher composition of apoptotic cells $(23.76\%)$ than the BID-treated group $(5.59\%)$. These results indicate that BIO is effective on antapoptosis of hESCs.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.377-384
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• 2002

To investigate the expression patterns of proteins and growth factor signals in differentiated rabbit embryonic stem (ES) cells, ES cells with confluent stage grown of feeder layer and differentiated cells into embryoid bodies (EB) without feeder cell were applied to protein gel and Western blotting analysis. There were 66kDa and 28kDa specifically expressed in differentiated ES cell but not in undifferentiated ES cell while 25kDa protein band showed up in only undifferentiated ES cells. Also there were some difference of protein bands in several area of gel between differentiated and undifferentiated ES cells such as about 100 kDa, 50kDa and 27kDa areas, but there was no difference in band pattern of one-dimensional gel analysis between mouse ES cells and rabbit ES cells. IGF-I receptor and EGF receptor were expressed in differentiated cells and undifferentiated cells. And ICF-I and EGF were not expressed in both differentiated and undifferentiated cells. These results indicated that ES cells express their own proteins to inhibit differentiation while EB cells synthesize different proteins to differentiate, and 16F-I receptor and EGF receptor were expressed in both ES and EB cells probably for the different functions.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.364-373
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• 2011

Human embryonic stem cells have been highlighted as a valuable cellular source in the regenerative medicine field, due to their pluripotency. However, there is the challenge of the establishment of specific functional cell type forms of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESC). To establish and purify functional cell types from hESCs, we differentiated undifferentiated hESCs into vascular lineage cells and sorted the specific cell population from the whole cell population, depending on their cell volume, and compared them with the non-sorted cell population. We observed that about 10% of the PECAM positive population existed in the VEGF induced differentiating human embryoid body (hEB), and differentiated hEBs were made into single cells for cell transplantation. After making single cells, we performed cell sorting using a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACs), according to their cell volume on the basis of FSC region gating, and compared their therapeutic capacity with the non-sorted cell population through cell transplantation into hindlimb ischemic disease model mice. 4 Weeks after cell transplantation, the recovery rate of blood perfusion reached 54% and 17% in the FSC regions of sorted cells- and non-sorted cells, respectively. This result suggests that derivation of a functional cell population from hESCs can be performed through cell sorting on the basis of cell volume after preliminary differentiation induction. This approach may then greatly contribute to overcoming the limitations of marker sorting.

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.10
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• pp.527-528
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• 2016

In embryonic stem cells (ESCs), cell cycle regulation is deeply connected to pluripotency. Especially, core transcription factors (CTFs) which are essential to maintaining the pluripotency transcription programs should be reset during M/G1 transition. However, it remains unknown about how CTFs are governed during cell cycle progression. Here, we describe that the regulation of Oct4 by Aurora kinase b (Aurkb)/protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) axis during the cell cycle is important for resetting Oct4 to pluripotency and cell cycle related target genes in determining the identity of ESCs. Aurkb starts to phosphorylate Oct4(S229) at the onset of G2/M phase, inducing the dissociation of Oct4 from chromatin, whereas PP1 binds Oct4 and dephosphorylates Oct4(S229) during M/G1 transition, which resets Oct4-driven transcription for pluripotency and the cell cycle. Furthermore, Aurkb phosphormimetic and PP1 binding-deficient mutations in Oct4 disrupt the pluripotent cell cycle, lead to the loss of pluripotency in ESCs, and decrease the efficiency of somatic cell reprogramming. Based on our findings, we suggest that the cell cycle is directly linked to pluripotency programs in ESCs.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.171-174
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• 2012

Various small molecules can be used to control major signaling pathways to enhance stemness and inhibit differentiation in murine embryonic stem cell (mESC) culture. Small molecules inhibiting the fibroblast growth factor (FGF)/ERK pathway can preserve pluripotent cells from stimulation of differentiation. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of pluripotin (SC-1), an inhibitor of the FGF/ERK pathway, on the colony formation of outgrowing presumptive mESCs. After plating the zona pellucida-free blastocyst on the feeder layer, attached cell clumps was cultured with SC-1 until the endpoint of the experiment at passage 10. In this experiment, when the number of colonies was counted at passage 3, SC-1-treated group showed 3.4 fold more mESC colonies when compared with control group. However, after passage 4, there was no stimulating effect of SC-1 on the colony formation. In conclusion, SC-1 treatment can be used to promote mESC generation by increasing the number of early mESC colonies.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.155-161
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• 2009

It has been reported that ganglioside GT1b is expressed during neuronal cell differentiation from undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), which suggests that ganglioside GT1b has a direct effect on neuronal cell differentiation. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of exogenous addition of ganglioside GT1b to an in vitro model of neuronal cell differentiation from undifferentiated mESCs. The results revealed that a significant increase in the expression of ganglioside GT1b occurred during neuronal differentiation of undifferentiated mESCs. Next, we evaluated the effect of retinoic acid (RA) on GT1b-treated undifferentiated mESCs, which was found to lead to increased neuronal differentiation. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that ganglioside GT1b plays a crucial role in neuronal differentiation of mESCs.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.216-221
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• 2011

Objective: To differentiate the human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in the defined culture condition and determine its therapeutic potential for the treatment of retinal degenerative diseases. Methods: The embryoid bodies were formed from hESCs and attached on the matrigel coated culture dishes. The neural structures consisting neural precursors were selected and expanded to form rosette structures. The mechanically isolated neural rosettes were differentiated into pigmented cells in the media comprised of N2 and B27. Expression profiles of markers related to RPE development were analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunostaining. Dissociated putative RPE cells ($10^5$ cells/5 ${\mu}L$) were transplanted into the subretinal space of rat retinal degeneration model induced by intravenous sodium iodate injection. Animals were sacrificed at 1, 2, and 4 weeks after transplantation, and immnohistochemistry study was performed to verify the survival of the transplanted cells. Results: The putative RPE cells derived from hESC showed characteristics of the human RPE cells morphologically and expressed molecular markers and associated with RPE fate. Grafted RPE cells were found to survive in the subretinal space up to 4 weeks after transplantation, and the expression of RPE markers was confirmed with immunohistochemistry. Conclusion: Transplanted RPE cells derived from hESC in the defined culture condition successfully survived and migrated within subretinal space of rat retinal degeneration model. These results support the feasibility of the hESC derived RPE cells for cell-based therapies for retinal degenerative disease.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.135-141
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• 2010

Embryoid bodies (EBs) generated from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) include spontaneously induced endodermal lineage cells (ELCs). Activin-A plays important roles in the endoderm differentiation of hESCs. Despite studies on the generation of ELCs from hESCs with treatment of Actvin-A, it was unclear for localization and pattern of ELCs by Activin-A during differentiation of hESCs. Accordingly in this study, we knew that Actvin-A increased the cystic EBs formation, including the highly enriched AFP (endoderm lineage specific marker)-expressing cells in the surface of cystic EBs. To induce the EBs formation from undifferentiated hESCs, cells were transferred onto petri-dish and cultured in suspension condition without bFGF removed hESC media (EB media) for 3 days. Next to investigate the effect of Activin-A, EBs were subsequently cultured in EB media supplement with 100 ng/ml Activin-A for 3 days. After 5~7 days of Activin-A treatment, cystic EBs began to appear which increased in numbers reaching ~60% of initially formed EBs over 5 days. Endoderm lineage marker, AFP were highly expressed and specifically localized at the surface region of cystic EBs comparison with normal EBs. We next attached the cystic EBs onto gelatin-coated plates and cultured for 5 days. In the results of real-time PCR and immunocytochemistry analysis, AFP-expressing cells migrated and localized at the outgrowth region of attached cystic EBs. To obtain the AFP-expressing cells of the outgrowth region, we manually isolated by using micro-dissection and cultured them. These cells strongly express AFP over 70% of isolated cells post re-plating. Here, we first showed an expression pattern of specifically localized ELCs by Activin-A during differentiation of hESCs. From this observation, we could highly purified ELCs from undifferentiated hESCs. Taken together, our system will provide a novel and efficient option to generate ELCs from hESCs.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2024

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) such as human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells, and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)-hESCs can permanently self-renew while maintaining their capacity to differentiate into any type of somatic cells, thereby serving as an important cell source for cell therapy. However, there are persistent challenges in the application of hPSCs in clinical trials, where one of the most significant is graft rejection by the patient immune system in response to human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatch when transplants are obtained from an allogeneic (non-self) cell source. Homozygous SCNT-hESCs (homo-SCNT-hESCs) were used to simplify the clinical application and to reduce HLA mismatch. Here, we present a xeno-free protocol that confirms the efficient generation of neural precursor cells in hPSCs and also the differentiation of dopaminergic neurons. Additionally, there was no difference when comparing the HLA expression patterns of hESC, homo-SCNT-hESCs and hetero-SCNT-hESCs. We propose that there are no differences in the differentiation capacity and HLA expression among hPSCs that can be cultured in vitro. Thus, it is expected that homo-SCNT-hESCs will possess a wider range of applications when transplanted with neural precursor cells in the context of clinical trials.