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Activin/Nodal Signaling Supports Retinal Progenitor Specification in a Narrow Time Window during Pluripotent Stem Cell Neuralization.

ABSTRACT: Retinal progenitors are initially found in the anterior neural plate region known as the eye field, whereas neighboring areas undertake telencephalic or hypothalamic development. Eye field cells become specified by switching on a network of eye field transcription factors, but the extracellular cues activating this network remain unclear. In this study, we used chemically defined media to induce in vitro differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) toward eye field fates. Inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling was sufficient to drive ESCs to telencephalic, but not retinal, fates. Instead, retinal progenitors could be generated from competent differentiating mouse ESCs by activation of Activin/Nodal signaling within a narrow temporal window corresponding to the emergence of primitive anterior neural progenitors. Activin also promoted eye field gene expression in differentiating human ESCs. Our results reveal insights into the mechanisms of eye field specification and open new avenues toward the generation of retinal progenitors for translational medicine.

SUBMITTER: Bertacchi M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4624997 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Activin/Nodal signaling supports retinal progenitor specification in a narrow time window during pluripotent stem cell differentiation to anterior neuroectoderm

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Project description:Activin/Nodal signalling is necessary to maintain pluripotency of human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs) and to induce their differentiation towards endoderm. However, the mechanisms by which Activin/Nodal signalling achieves these opposite functions remain unclear. To unravel these mechanisms, we examined the transcriptional network controlled in hESCs by Smad2 and Smad3 which represent the direct effectors of Activin/Nodal signalling. These analyses reveal that Smad2/3 participate in the control of the core transcriptional network characterising pluripotency which includes Oct-4, Nanog, FoxD3, Dppa4, Tert, Myc and UTF-1. In addition, similar experiments performed on endoderm cells confirm that a broad part of the transcriptional network directing differentiation is downstream of Smad2/3. Therefore, Activin/Nodal signalling appears to control divergent transcriptional networks in hESCs and in endoderm. Importantly, we observed an overlap between the transcriptional network downstream of Nanog and Smad2/3 in hESCs while functional studies showed that both factors cooperate to control the expression of pluripotency genes. Therefore, the effect of Activin/Nodal signalling on pluripotency and differentiation could be dictated by tissue specific Smad2/3 partners such as Nanog, explaining the mechanisms by which signalling pathways can orchestrate divergent cell fate decisions. Identification of Smad2/3 binding sites in pluripotent hESCs. 5 ChIP-Seq samples including 1 input control sample and 4 ChIP samples (two conditions x two replicates).

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