Introduction Embryonic stem (ES) cells are unspecialized cells isolated from the preimplantation embryo, specifically from the inner cell mass present at the blastocyst stage. ES cells have the unique capacity to proliferate indefinitely in an undifferentiated state; they have not yet specialized into a specific cell lineage and harbor features of pluripotency, with the ability to differentiate...

ES cells (embryonic stem cells) derived from the ICM (inner cell mass) of blastocysts are pluripotent and are capable of giving rise to most cell types. The ES cell identity is mainly maintained by the Oct4 (octamer-binding transcription factor 4) and Nanog transcriptional networks. Recently, a tremendous amount of work has focused on deciphering how ES cell identity is regulated epigenetically...

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst. ES cell surface molecules are important for the identification, labeling, sorting, quality control and functional studies of ES cells. Currently, knowledge of ES surface molecules is limited. To identify new surface molecules, we generated a panel of rabbit monoclonal antibodies (rMabs) agai...

While hematopoietic stem cells from adult and fetal stages of murine development are capable of long term reconstitution of all mature blood lineages in vivo, embryonic hematopoietic stem cell repopulation in vivo has proved difficult. It is thought that there are many fewer hematopoietic stem cells in the embryo than in the fetal/adult stages of mouse development and that these cells possess a...

How do we study the endocrine cell differentiation of the placenta? The accepted course of action dictates that you use primary trophoblast cell cultures derived from human placentas. This is accomplished using methods to isolate cytotrophoblasts that possess the potential to spontaneously differentiate into endocrinologically active syncytial trophoblast within a prescribed period of time (1)....

Objective To establish C57BL/6J embryonic stem (ES) cell lines with potential germline contribution Methods ES cells were isolated from blastocyst inner cell mass of C57BL/6J mice, and cultured for 15 passages, and then injected into blastococels of ICR mice blastocysts to establish chimeric mice. Results Three ES cell lines (mC57ES1,mC57ES3, mC57ES7) derived from the inner cell mass of C57BL/6...

Stem cells represent natural units of embryonic development and tissue regeneration. Embryonic stem (ES) cells, in particular, possess a nearly unlimited self-renewal capacity and developmental potential to differentiate into virtually any cell type of an organism. Mouse ES cells, which are established as permanent cell lines from early embryos, can be regarded as a versatile biological system ...

Embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are ES-like stem cells induced from adult tissues, are twin stem cells with currently (with the exception of fertilized eggs) the broadest differentiation potentials. These two stem cells show various similarities in appearance, maintenance methods, growth and differentiation potentials, i.e. theoretically, those cells ca...

Much attention has been focused on neural cell transplantation because of its promising clinical applications. We have reported that embryonic stem (ES) cell derived neural stem/progenitor cell transplantation significantly improved motor functions in a hemiplegic mouse model. It is important to understand the molecular mechanisms governing neural regeneration of the damaged motor cortex after ...