Project description:The blueprint of the mammalian body plan is laid out during gastrulation, when a trilaminar embryo is formed. This process entails a burst of embryonic cell proliferation, the ingression of pluripotent epithelial cells at the primitive streak, and their priming towards primitive streak fates. How these different events are coordinated remains unknown. Here, we developed a 3D culture of self-renewing pluripotent and epithelial cells that recapitulates the transcriptional and architectural features of the gastrulating mouse embryo. Using this system in combination with microfabrication and in vivo experiments, we found that proliferation triggers basal extrusion in cells that express high levels of the apical polarity protein aPKC. Upon extrusion, cells are more sensitive to Bmp, Wnt, and Nodal signaling, and upregulate the expression of primitive streak markers. This mechanistic coupling between cell position and gene expression ensures that the right cell types become specified at the right place during embryonic development.
Project description:Metabolism is vital to cellular function and tissue homeostasis during human lung development. In utero, embryonic pluripotent stem cells undergo endodermal differentiation towards a lung progenitor cell fate that can be mimicked in vitro using induced human pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to study genetic mutations. To identify differences between wild type and surfactant protein B (SFTPB)-deficient cell lines during endoderm specification towards lung, we used an untargeted metabolomics approach to evaluate the developmental changes in metabolites. We found that the metabolites most enriched during the differentiation from pluripotent stem cell to lung progenitor cell, regardless of cell line, were sphingomyelins and phosphatidylcholines, two important lipid classes in fetal lung development. The SFTPB mutation had no metabolic impact on early endodermal lung development. The identified metabolite signatures during lung progenitor cell differentiation may be utilized as biomarkers for normal embryonic lung development.
Project description:The events that prime pluripotent cells for differentiation are not well understood. Inhibitor of DNA binding/differentiation (Id) proteins, which are inhibitors of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor activity, contribute to pluripotency by blocking sequential transitions toward differentiation. Using yeast-two-hybrid screens, we have identified Id-regulated transcription factors that are expressed in embryonic stem cells (ESCs). One of these, Tcf15, is also expressed in the embryonic day 4.5 embryo and is specifically associated with a novel subpopulation of primed ESCs. An Id-resistant form of Tcf15 rapidly downregulates Nanog and accelerates somatic lineage commitment. We propose that because Tcf15 can be held in an inactive state through Id activity, it may prime pluripotent cells for entry to somatic lineages upon downregulation of Id. We also find that Tcf15 expression is dependent on fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling, providing an explanation for how FGF can prime for differentiation without driving cells out of the pluripotent state.
Project description:During acute myelosuppression or thrombocytopenia, bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic cells respond rapidly to replenish peripheral blood platelets. While the cytokine Thrombopoietin (Thpo) concomitantly regulates platelet production and maintains HSC stem cell potential whether Thpo directly controls Mk-lineage differentiation of HSCs is unclear. Stress hematopoiesis requires quiescent HSCs to proliferate, a process which depends on a higher energy production. However, whether this switch of metabolic state relates to lineage differentiation of HSCs is not known. We here show that Thpo rapidly upregulates mitochondrial activity in HSCs which was accompanied by preferential differentiation to Mk-lineage. During unperturbed hematopoiesis, HSCs with high mitochondrial content and activity exhibit Mk-lineage biased differentiation. Furthermore, Thpo rapidly skewed HSCs to express a tetraspanin molecule, CD9, which expression correlated to mitochondria cell content. While highly proliferative, mitochondrial-rich HSCs were resistant to apoptosis and oxidative stress upon Thpo stimulation. Thpo regulated mitochondrial activity did not associate with high levels of cMpl expression but was influenced by non-nuclear mitochondrial translocation of phosphorylated of STAT3 at serine 727. Our data reveals that HSCs are metabolically heterogeneous and higher mitochondrial activity primes HSCs toward the Mk lineage differentiation. We also uncover a pivotal role of Thpo in regulating the rapid Mk-lineage commitment during stress hematopoiesis. Our findings suggest that mitochondria metabolism primes HSCs not only to exit dormancy but toward direct differentiation to Mk lineage.
Project description:In epidermal differentiation basal keratinocytes detach from the basement membrane, stop proliferating, and express a new set of structural proteins and enzymes, which results in an impermeable protein/lipid barrier that protects us. To define the transcriptional changes essential for this process, we purified large quantities of basal and suprabasal cells from human epidermis, using the expression of b4 integrin as the discriminating factor. The expected expression differences in cytoskeletal, cell cycle and adhesion genes confirmed the effective separation of the cell populations. Using DNA microarray chips, we comprehensively identify the differences in genes expressed in basal and differentiating layers of the epidermis, including the ECM components produced by the basal cells, the proteases in both the basal and suprabasal cells, and the lipid and steroid metabolism enzymes in suprabasal cells responsible for the permeability barrier. We identified the signaling pathways specific for the two populations, and found two previously unknown paracrine and one juxtacrine signaling pathway operating between the basal and suprabasal cells. Furthermore, using specific expression signatures, we identified a new set of late differentiation markers and mapped their chromosomal loci, as well as a new set of melanocyte-specific markers. The data represent a quantum jump in understanding the mechanisms of epidermal differentiation. Basal keratinocytes are defined as integrin b4-positive. Suprabasal sample contains all melanocytes as well. Basal (integrin b4+), suprabasal (b4-) and total epidermal keratinocytes. In duplicate, from 2 independent donors, breast reduction surgery.
Project description:The integration of cell metabolism with signalling pathways, transcription factor networks and epigenetic mediators is critical in coordinating molecular and cellular events during embryogenesis. Induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs) are an established model for embryogenesis, germ layer specification and cell lineage differentiation, advancing the study of human embryonic development and the translation of innovations in drug discovery, disease modelling and cell-based therapies. The metabolic regulation of IPSC pluripotency is mediated by balancing glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation, but there is a paucity of data regarding the influence of individual metabolite changes during cell lineage differentiation. We used <sup>1</sup>H NMR metabolite fingerprinting and footprinting to monitor metabolite levels as IPSCs are directed in a three-stage protocol through primitive streak/mesendoderm, mesoderm and chondrogenic populations. Metabolite changes were associated with central metabolism, with aerobic glycolysis predominant in IPSC, elevated oxidative phosphorylation during differentiation and fatty acid oxidation and ketone body use in chondrogenic cells. Metabolites were also implicated in the epigenetic regulation of pluripotency, cell signalling and biosynthetic pathways. Our results show that <sup>1</sup>H NMR metabolomics is an effective tool for monitoring metabolite changes during the differentiation of pluripotent cells with implications on optimising media and environmental parameters for the study of embryogenesis and translational applications.
Project description:In epidermal differentiation basal keratinocytes detach from the basement membrane, stop proliferating, and express a new set of structural proteins and enzymes, which results in an impermeable protein/lipid barrier that protects us. To define the transcriptional changes essential for this process, we purified large quantities of basal and suprabasal cells from human epidermis, using the expression of b4 integrin as the discriminating factor. The expected expression differences in cytoskeletal, cell cycle and adhesion genes confirmed the effective separation of the cell populations. Using DNA microarray chips, we comprehensively identify the differences in genes expressed in basal and differentiating layers of the epidermis, including the ECM components produced by the basal cells, the proteases in both the basal and suprabasal cells, and the lipid and steroid metabolism enzymes in suprabasal cells responsible for the permeability barrier. We identified the signaling pathways specific for the two populations, and found two previously unknown paracrine and one juxtacrine signaling pathway operating between the basal and suprabasal cells. Furthermore, using specific expression signatures, we identified a new set of late differentiation markers and mapped their chromosomal loci, as well as a new set of melanocyte-specific markers. The data represent a quantum jump in understanding the mechanisms of epidermal differentiation. Basal keratinocytes are defined as integrin b4-positive. Suprabasal sample contains all melanocytes as well.
Project description:The derivation of self-renewing tissue-specific stem cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) would shorten the time needed to engineer mature cell types in vitro and would have broad reaching implications for the field of regenerative medicine. Here we report the directed differentiation of human iPSCs into putative airway basal cells (“iBCs”), a population resembling the epithelial stem cell of lung airways. Using a dual fluorescent reporter system (NKX2-1GFP;TP63tdTomato) we track and purify these cells over time, as they first emerge from iPSC-derived foregut endoderm as developmentally immature NKX2-1GFP+ lung progenitors which then augment a TP63 program during subsequent proximal airway epithelial patterning. These cells clonally proliferate, initially as NKX2-1GFP+/ TP63tdTomato+ immature airway progenitors that lack expression of the adult basal cell surface marker, NGFR. However, in response to primary basal cell media, NKX2-1GFP+/ TP63tdTomato+ cells upregulate NGFR and display the molecular and functional phenotype of airway basal stem cells, including the capacity to clonally self-renew or undergo multilineage ciliated and secretory epithelial differentiation in air-liquid interface cultures. iBCs and their differentiated progeny recapitulate several fundamental physiologic features of normal primary airway epithelial cells and model perturbations that characterize acquired and genetic airway diseases. In an asthma model of mucus metaplasia, the inflammatory cytokine IL-13 induced an increase in MUC5AC+ cells similar to primary cells. CFTR-dependent chloride flux in airway epithelium generated from cystic fibrosis iBCs or their syngeneic CFTR-corrected controls exhibited a pattern consistent with the flux measured in primary diseased and normal human airway epithelium, respectively. Finally, multiciliated cells generated from an individual with primary ciliary dyskinesia recapitulated the ciliary beat and ultrastructural defects observed in the donor. Thus, we demonstrate the successful de novo generation of a tissue-resident stem cell-like population in vitro from iPSCs, an approach which should facilitate disease modeling and future regenerative therapies for a variety of diseases affecting the lung airways.Single-cell RNA-Sequencing profiling of human iPSC-derived basal cells, airway epithelium compared to primary human basal cells and airway epithelium.