BACKGROUND Modelling of cardiac development, physiology and pharmacology by differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) requires comparability of cardiac differentiation between different ESC lines. To investigate whether the outcome of cardiac differentiation is consistent between different ESC lines, we compared electrophysiological properties of ESC-derived cardiomyocytes (ESC-CMs) of dif...

Embryonic stem cells provide one potential source of cardiomyocytes for cardiac transplantation; however, after differentiation of stem cells in vitro, cardiomyocytes usually account for only a minority of cells present. To gain insights into improving cardiomyocyte development from stem cells, we examined the role of the Na(+)/H(+) exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1) in cardiomyocyte differentiation. N...

The way to overcome current limitations in the generation of glucose-responsive insulin-producing cells is selective enrichment of the number of definitive endoderm (DE) progenitor cells. Sox17 is the marker of mesendoderm and definitive endoderm. The aim of the present research was to study the potential of Sox17 knock-in CGR8 mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells to differentiate into insulin produ...

High-mobility-group protein 2 (HMGB2) expression is upregulated in human liver cancer. However, little is known about its regulatory function. Here we establish HMGB2 as a new modulator of the pluripotency of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Similar to OCT4 and SOX2, HMGB2 protein is highly expressed in undifferentiated CGR8 cells, whereas it undergoes rapid decline during embryonic body (EB)...

the way to overcome current limitations in the generation of glucose-responsive insulin-producing cells is selective enrichment of the number of definitive endoderm (de) progenitor cells. sox17 is the marker of mesendoderm and definitive endoderm. the aim of the present research was to study the potential of sox17 knock-in cgr8 mouse embryonic stem (es) cells to differentiate into insulin produ...

Embryonic stem cell studies have generated great interest, due to their ability to form a wide variety of matured cells. However, there remains a poor understanding of mechanisms regulating the cell state of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and of the genes they express during early differentiation. Gene expression analysis may be a valuable tool to elucidate either the molecular pathways involved i...

Pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESC) have the potential to differentiate into any cell type of the three germ layers. Differentiation processes depend on genetic and epigenetic factors. The guidance of cell fate determination by microRNAs (miRs) seems important for embryonic development and cell lineage decisions. MiRs are short, single-stranded, noncoding RNA molecules that regulate through ...

Knelangen JM, van der Hoek MB, Kong WC, Owens JA, Fischer B, Navarrete Santos A. MicroRNA expression profile during adipogenic differentiation in mouse embryonic stem cells. Physiol Genomics 43: 611– 620, 2011. First published January 18, 2011; doi:10.1152/physiolgenomics.00116.2010.—Pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESC) have the potential to differentiate into any cell type of the three germ ...

Conventional therapies for myocardial infarction attenuate disease progression without contributing significantly to repair. Because of the capacity for de novo cardiogenesis, embryonic stem cells are considered a potential source for myocardial regeneration, yet limited information is available on their ultimate therapeutic value. We treated infarcted rat hearts with CGR8 embryonic stem cells ...

Although it is well established that embryonic stem (ES) cells have the potential to differentiate into dopamine neurons, the molecular basis of this process, particularly the role of microRNAs (miRNAs), remains largely unknown. Here we report that miR-132 plays a key role in the differentiation of dopamine neurons by directly regulating the expression of Nurr1 (also known as nuclear receptor s...