Project description:During mammalian pre-implantation development, the cells of the blastocyst’s inner cell mass differentiate into the epiblast and primitive endoderm lineages, which give rise to the fetus and extra-embryonic tissues, respectively. Extra-embryonic endoderm differentiation can be modeled in vitro by induced expression of GATA transcription factors in mouse embryonic stem cells. Here we use this GATA-inducible system to quantitatively monitor the dynamics of global proteomic changes during the early stages of this differentiation event and also investigate the fully differentiated phenotype, as represented by embryo-derived extra-embryonic endoderm (XEN) cells. Using mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomic profiling with multivariate data analysis tools, we reproducibly quantified 2,336 proteins across three biological replicates and have identified clusters of proteins characterized by distinct, dynamic temporal abundance profiles. We first used this approach to highlight novel marker candidates of the pluripotent state and extra-embryonic endoderm differentiation. Through functional annotation enrichment analysis, we have shown that the downregulation of chromatin-modifying enzymes, the re-organization of membrane trafficking machinery and the breakdown of cell-cell adhesion are successive steps of the extra-embryonic differentiation process. Thus, applying a range of sophisticated clustering approaches to a time-resolved proteomic dataset has allowed the elucidation of complex biological processes which characterize stem cell differentiation and could establish a general paradigm for the investigation of these processes.
Project description:To explore genes involved in epiblast development, we have employed whole genome microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify genes. Embryoid body (EB) formation induces embryonic stem (ES) cells to differentiate into germ layers via epiblasts and extra-embryonic tissues, whereas ES cells give rise only to extra-embryonic tissues in monolayer culture. We compared gene expression profiles of ES cells in each differentiation culture methods at day 1-3 or 4 of differentiation. The expression of organizer related genes (Lhx1, Cer1 and Foxa2) was specifically induced at day 3 of EBs, but not in monolayer culture. In epiblast model cells, the overexpression of Lhx1 induced gene expression of organizer and meso-endodermal markers, suggested that Lhx1 was related to epiblast differentiation.
Project description:During in vitro differentiation, pluripotent stem cells undergo extensive remodeling of their gene expression profiles. While studied extensively at the transcriptome level, much less is known about protein dynamics, which might differ significantly from their mRNA counterparts. Here, we present deep proteome-wide measurements of protein levels during the differentiation of embryonic stem cells.
Project description:To explore genes involved in epiblast development, we have employed whole genome microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify genes. Embryoid body (EB) formation induces embryonic stem (ES) cells to differentiate into germ layers via epiblasts and extra-embryonic tissues, whereas ES cells give rise only to extra-embryonic tissues in monolayer culture. We compared gene expression profiles of ES cells in each differentiation culture methods at day 1-3 or 4 of differentiation. The expression of organizer related genes (Lhx1, Cer1 and Foxa2) was specifically induced at day 3 of EBs, but not in monolayer culture. In epiblast model cells, the overexpression of Lhx1 induced gene expression of organizer and meso-endodermal markers, suggested that Lhx1 was related to epiblast differentiation. Gene expression related epiblast development was measured at undifferentiated state and day 1-3 or 4 of differentiation. Two independent experiments were performed at each time using different people for each experiment.
Project description:The generation of properly functioning gametes in vitro, a key goal in developmental/reproductive biology, requires multi-step reconstitutions of complex germ cell development. Based on the logic of primordial germ cell (PGC)-specification, we demonstrate here the generation of PGC-like cells (PGCLCs) in mice with robust capacity for spermatogenesis from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) through epiblast-like cells (EpiLCs), a cellular state highly similar to pre-gastrulating epiblasts, but distinct from epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs). The global transcription profiles, epigenetic reprogramming, and cellular dynamics during PGCLC induction from EpiLCs are a meticulous capture of those associated with PGC specification from the epiblasts. Furthermore, we identify Integrin-beta 3 and SSEA1 as markers that purify PGCLCs with spermatogenic capacity free from tumorigenic undifferentiated cells. With the reconstitution of PGC specification pathway from the naive inner cell mass state, our study defines a paradigm for the essential step of in vitro gametogenesis. We performed this analysis to reveal the characters of the cells that we created in this study, epiblast-like cells (EpiLCs) and primordial germ cells-like cells (PGCLCs). Because EpiLCs were induced from embryonic stem cells (ESCs), and equivalent to pre-gastrulating epiblast (embryonic day [E] 5.5-6.0) in vivo (embryo), ESCs and epiblast were included in this analysis. Epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) are a culture cell type derived from epiblast, and were also included. PGCLCs were supposed to be equivalent to E9.5 PGCs based on reporter fluorescent transgene expressions and epigenetic properties, and therefore E9.5 PGCs were also inckuded in this analysis. Because epiblast and E9.5 PGCs are of a small number of cells in embryos (a few hundred to thousand cells), cDNAs were amplified with a quantitative global PCR method (Kurimoto et al., 2006, Nucleic Acids Research) for microarray analyses. We took two biological replicate for each cell type.