Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) proliferate infinitely and are pluripotent. Only a few reports, however, describe specific and efficient methods to induce hESCs to differentiate into mature blood cells. It is important to determine whether and how these cells, once generated, behave similarly with their in vivo-produced counterparts. We developed a method to induce hESCs to differentiate int...

Cardiomyogenesis in differentiating mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells is promoted by cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1), a member of the IL-6 interleukin superfamily that acts through the tall gp130 cytokine receptor. We show that prooxidants (menadione, hydrogen peroxide) as well as chemical (CoCl2) and physiological (1% O2) hypoxia increased CT-1 as well as HIF-1alpha protein and mRNA expression in embryoi...

In order to test the hypothesis that embryonal carcinoma cells are multipotential stem cells of a teratocarcinoma, an in vivo cloning technic was designed. Small embryoid bodies containing mostly embryonal carcinoma were obtained from ascitic con version of a murine teratocarcinoma and were dissociated with trypsin to form a sus pension of single cells; the single cells were picked up in small ...

Laminin-1 is essential for early embryonic basement membrane assembly and differentiation. Several steps can be distinguished, i.e., the expression of laminin and companion matrix components, their accumulation on the cell surface and assembly into basement membrane between endoderm and inner cell mass, and the ensuing differentiation of epiblast. In this study, we used differentiating embryoid...