EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS – DIFFERENTIATION AND PLURIPOTENT ALTERNATIVES Edited by Michael S. Kallos Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives Edited by Michael S. Kallos Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2011 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which permits to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work in any medium, so long as the original work is properly cited. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. 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Used under license from Shutterstock.com First published September, 2011 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechweb.org Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives, Edited by Michael S. Kallos p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-632-4 free online editions of InTech Books and Journals can be found at www.intechopen.com Contents Preface IX Part 1 General Differentiation 1 Chapter 1 Role of Signaling Pathways and Epigenetic Factors in Lineage Determination During Human Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation 3 Prasenjit Sarkar and Balaji M. Rao Chapter 2 Bioactive Lipids in Stem Cell Differentiation 33 Erhard Bieberich and Guanghu Wang Chapter 3 Retinoid Signaling is a Context-Dependent Regulator of Embryonic Stem Cells 55 Zoltan Simandi and Laszlo Nagy Part 2 Neural and Retinal Differentiation 79 Chapter 4 Pluripotent Stem Cells as an In Vitro Model of Neuronal Differentiation 81 Irina Kerkis, Mirian A. F. Hayashi, Nelson F. Lizier, Antonio C. Cassola, Lygia V. Pereira and Alexandre Kerkis Chapter 5 Characterization of Embryonic Stem (ES) Neuronal Differentiation Combining Atomic Force, Confocal and DIC Microscopy Imaging 99 Maria Elisabetta Ruaro, Jelena Ban and Vincent Torre Chapter 6 Oligodendrocyte Fate Determination in Human Embryonic Stem Cells 119 Siddharth Gupta, Angelo All and Candace Kerr Chapter 7 Stem-Cell Therapy for Retinal Diseases 135 Rubens Camargo Siqueira VI Contents Part 3 Cardiac and Other Myogenic Differentiation 149 Chapter 8 Transcriptional Networks of Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyogenesis 151 Diego Franco, Estefania Lozano-Velasco and Amelia Aránega Chapter 9 Human Pluripotent Stem Cells in Cardiovascular Research and Regenerative Medicine 169 Ellen Poon, Chi-wing Kong and Ronald A. Li Chapter 10 Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes: Maturity and Electrophysiology 185 Ville Kujala, Mari Pekkanen-Mattila and Katriina Aalto-Setälä Chapter 11 Maintenance Of Calcium Homeostasis in Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes 205 Iek Chi Lo, Chun Kit Wong and Suk Ying Tsang Chapter 12 Myogenic Differentiation of ES Cells for Therapies in Neuromuscular Diseases: Progress to Date 227 Camila F. Almeida, Danielle Ayub-Guerrieri and Mariz Vainzof Part 4 Endothelial Differentiation 243 Chapter 13 Dissecting the Signal Transduction Pathway that Directs Endothelial Differentiation Using Embryonic Stem CellDerived Vascular Progenitor Cells 245 Kyoko Kawasaki and Keiji Miyazawa Chapter 14 Endothelial Differentiation of Embryonic Stem Cells 267 Peter Oettgen Part 5 Hepatic Differentiation 277 Chapter 15 Stem Cells for HUMAN Hepatic Tissue Engineering 279 N.I. Nativ, M.A. Ghodbane, T.J. Maguire, F. Berthiaume and M.L. Yarmush Chapter 16 Hepatic Differentiation of Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine 303 Toshio Miki Part 6 Osteogenic Differentiation 321 Chapter 17 Osteogenesis from Pluripotent Stem Cells: Neural Crest or Mesodermal Origin? 323 Kevin C. Keller and Nicole I. zur Nieden Contents VII Part 7 Pluripotent Alternatives – Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) 349 Chapter 18 The Past, Present and Future of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells 351 Koji Tanabe and Kazutoshi Takahashi Chapter 19 New Techniques in the Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells 373 Raymond C.B. Wong, Ellen L. Smith and Peter J. Donovan Chapter 20 Generation of ICM-Type Human iPS Cells from CD34 + Cord Blood Cells 399 Naoki Nishishita, Noemi Fusaki and Shin Kawamata Chapter 21 Modelling of Neurological Diseases Using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells 413 Oz Pomp, Chen Sok Lam, Hui Theng Gan, Srinivas Ramasamy and Sohail Ahmed Part 8 Pluripotent Alternatives - Other Cell Sources 431 Chapter 22 Very Small Embryonic/Epiblast-Like Stem Cells (VSELs) Residing in Adult Tissues and Their Role in Tissue Rejuvenation and Regeneration 433 Dong-Myung Shin, Janina Ratajczak, Magda Kucia and Mariusz Z. Ratajczak Chapter 23 Multipotent Dental Stem Cells: An Alternative Adult Derived Stem Cell Source for Regenerative Medicine 451 Tammy Laberge and Herman S. Cheung Chapter 24 Pluripotent Stem Cells from Testis 473 Sandeep Goel and Hiroshi Imai Chapter 25 Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells 493 Gianni Carraro, Orquidea H. Garcia, Laura Perin, Roger De Filippo and David Warburton Preface Embryonic stem cells have immense therapeutic potential, but for cell therapy these pluripotent cells will have to be differentiated towards cells of interest before transplantation. Controlled, robust differentiation processes will require knowledge of the signalling pathways and mechanisms which will obviously be unique for each differentiated cell type. There are a tremendous variety of approaches and techniques, and this book, Embryonic Stem Cells - Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives and its companion, Embryonic Stem Cells - Basic Biology to Bioengineering, serve as a snapshot of many of the activities currently underway on a number of different fronts. This book is divided into eight parts and provides examples of the many tissue types that embryonic stem cells are being pushed towards, as well as alternative sources for pluripotent stem cells. Part 1: General Differentiation Chapters 1-3 present a number of different aspects of embryonic stem cell differentiation including signalling pathways, epigenetic factors, bioactive lipids and retinoid signalling. Part 2: Neural and Retinal Differentiation Chapters 4-7 examine how neural cell types are generated from embryonic stem cells, including looking at some interesting imaging techniques and a review of stem cell therapy for retinal diseases. Part 3: Cardiac and Other Myogenic Differentiation Chapters 8-12 present a number of aspects of cardiomyocytes differentiation including detailed characterization of the differentiated cells. In addition the use of ESC-derived myogenic cells for neuromuscular diseases is discussed. Part 4: Endothelial Differentiation Chapters 13-14 describe endothelial differentiation with a focus on the signalling transduction pathways involved. Part 5: Hepatic Differentiation Chapters 15-16 examine another interesting application of embryonic stem cells for hepatic tissue engineering. X Preface Part 6: Osteogenic Differentiation Chapter 17 looks at osteogenesis and the developmental path from pluripotent cells to osteoblasts. Part 7: Pluripotent Alternatives Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) Chapters 18-21 discuss induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) starting with a great review of the iPSC story to date. The next chapters present new techniques to generate iPSCs including from cord blood cells. An interesting application of iPSCs in the modelling of neurological diseases is described as an example of one of the many uses of these cells. Part 8: Pluripotent Alternatives Other Cell Sources Chapters 22-25 describe alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells. These include very small embryonic/epiblast like stem cells, multipotent dental stem cells, pluripotent stem cells from testis and amniotic fluid stem cells. In the book Embryonic Stem Cells - Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives, the story begins with a foundation upon which future therapies and uses of embryonic stem cells can be built. I would like to thank all of the authors for their valuable contributions. I would also like to thank Megan Hunt who provided me with much needed assistance and acted as a sounding board for early chapter selection, and the staff at InTech, particularly Romina Krebel who answered all of my questions and kept me on track during the entire process. Calgary, Alberta, Canada, September 2011 Michael S. Kallos Pharmaceutical Production Research Facility (PPRF), Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada [...]... pluripotency and differentiation has also 10 Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives been demonstrated recently [107] Dicer deficient mESCs fail to differentiate in vitro as well as in vivo [112] Over-expression of miR-302 leads to reprogramming of human hair follicle cells and human skin cancer cells to form iPS cells [113-114] During mESC differentiation, miR-134, miR-296 and miR-470... stem cells generates glucose-responsive insulin-secreting cells in vivo Nat Biotechnol, 2008 26(4): p 443-52 20 Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives [21] D'Amour, K.A., et al., Efficient differentiation of human embryonic stem cells to definitive endoderm Nat Biotechnol, 2005 23(12): p 1534-41 [22] Chambers, S.M., et al., Highly efficient neural conversion of human ES and. .. MacDonald, B.T., K Tamai, and X He, Wnt/beta-catenin signaling: components, mechanisms, and diseases Dev Cell, 2009 17(1): p 9-26 22 Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives [62] Sugimura, R and L Li, Noncanonical Wnt signaling in vertebrate development, stem cells, and diseases Birth Defects Res C Embryo Today, 2010 90(4): p 243-56 [63] Teo, J.L and M Kahn, The Wnt signaling... neural differentiation in mESCs and knockdown of Jhdm1d blocks neural differentiation [214] 14 Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives 3.2.5 DNA Methyltransferases The DNA Methyltransferases (DNMTs) in humans include DNMT1, DNMT2 and DNMT3 (reviewed in [215-216]) The identified isoforms of DNMT1 are DNMT1s, DNMT1o, DNMT1b and DNMTΔE3-6 Members of DNMT3 are DNMT3a, DNMT3b and. .. HESC Lineage 18 Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives Role of Signaling Pathways and Epigenetic Factors in Lineage Determination During Human Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation 19 5 Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge funding support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant CBET-0966859 6 References [1] Thomson, J.A., et al., Embryonic stem cell lines... of cell proliferation and survival Mol Cell Biol, 2008 28(10): p 3177-89 [103] Guo, X and X.F Wang, Signaling cross-talk between TGF-beta/BMP and other pathways Cell Res, 2009 19(1): p 71-88 24 Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives [104] Xiao, L., X Yuan, and S.J Sharkis, Activin A maintains self-renewal and regulates fibroblast growth factor, Wnt, and bone morphogenic... human embryonic stem cells Stem Cells, 2006 24(6): p 1476-86 [105] Katoh, M., CER1 is a common target of WNT and NODAL signaling pathways in human embryonic stem cells Int J Mol Med, 2006 17(5): p 795-9 [106] Wienholds, E and R.H Plasterk, MicroRNA function in animal development FEBS Lett, 2005 579(26): p 5911-22 [107] Tiscornia, G and J.C Izpisua Belmonte, MicroRNAs in embryonic stem cell function and. .. epigenetic factors 16 Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives including components of the NuRD HDAC complex (Chd4, p66α, p66β, Mbd3, Mta1-3 and Hdac1), chromatin remodeling proteins (Brg1, Baf155 and ISWI) and DNA methyltransferases (Dnmt3a and Dnmt3l) [271] 3.3 Cell polarity Cell polarity is a feature of cellular physiology exhibited by epithelial cells It refers to uneven... self-renewal and directed differentiation of human embryonic stem cells in chemically defined conditions Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2006 103(18): p 690712 [19] Schuldiner, M., et al., Effects of eight growth factors on the differentiation of cells derived from human embryonic stem cells Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2000 97(21): p 11307-12 [20] Kroon, E., et al., Pancreatic endoderm derived from human embryonic stem. .. proteins such as transcription factors and structural proteins, causing a morphological change in the cell Also, pluripotency associated transcription factors and other pluripotency-associated genes are permanently repressed, thereby completing the process of differentiation Thus, the process of differentiation is a 4 Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives rather complex cascade . EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS – DIFFERENTIATION AND PLURIPOTENT ALTERNATIVES Edited by Michael S. Kallos Embryonic Stem Cells – Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives. sources of pluripotent stem cells. These include very small embryonic/ epiblast like stem cells, multipotent dental stem cells, pluripotent stem cells from testis and amniotic fluid stem cells. . cells. In the book Embryonic Stem Cells - Differentiation and Pluripotent Alternatives, the story begins with a foundation upon which future therapies and uses of embryonic stem cells can be built.