Mis-regulation of gene expression due to epigenetic abnormalities has been linked with complex genetic disorders, psychiatric illness, and cancer. In addition, the dynamic epigenetic changes that occur in pluripotent stem cells are believed to impact regulatory networks essen ...
It is widely accepted that somatic cells can be reprogrammed by a set of transcription factors to become embryonic stem cell-like: These reprogrammed cells, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), are nearly identical to embryonic stem cells (ESCs), because both have the capacity to self-r ...
Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), in particular induced PSCs, are very difficult to derive, grow, and bank. They require extensive amounts of resources and time to render them useful for basic and applied research. As the derivation methods, culture systems and tissues of origin differ, so do ...
Defined pluripotent stem cell culture media is a valuable tool for tracking and analyzing morphological, cell signaling and gene expression changes in human embryonic stem cells. Cultivation of hESC under xeno-free culture settings provides researchers with a consistent and repr ...
Human embryonic stem cells can be cultured and maintained on fibroblast feeder cells of murine or human origin. Thorough protocols are provided for the growth and maintenance of human embryonic stem cells on either feeder cell type.
Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have become an important tool for modeling human diseases and are considered a potential source of therapeutic cells. Original methods for iPSC generation use fibroblasts as a cell source for reprogramming and retroviral vectors as a delive ...
Human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes are a novel source of cells for patient-specific cardiotoxicity drug testing, drug discovery, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine. We describe a versatile and cost-effective protocol for in vitro c ...
Differentiation of human stem cells to hepatocytes is crucial for industrial applications as well as to develop new therapeutic strategies for liver disease. The protocol described here, using sequentially growth factors known to play a role in liver embryonic development, efficie ...
Many research groups are engaged in using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to generate surrogate pancreatic β-cells for transplantation into diabetic patients. However, to our knowledge, there is no report on the successful generation of glucose-responsive insulin-produc ...
A significant barrier to the therapeutic application of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) is the risk associated with the presence of undefined, animal-derived elements that are routinely used to culture these cells. Originally, PSCs were derived on mouse feeder cells in media containing f ...
Human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are an important potential source of cells for regenerative medicine due to their inherent ability to differentiate into all cell types of the three germ layers. Generation of iPSCs with a non-integrating reprogramming method and in culture ...
One of the major obstacles in generating induced pluripotent stem cells for research or downstream applications is the potential modifications of cellular genome as a result of using integrating viruses during reprogramming. Another major disadvantage of reprogramming cells w ...
Human somatic cells can be reprogrammed to the pluripotent state to become human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC). This reprogramming is achieved by activating signaling pathways that are expressed during early development. These pathways can be induced by ectopic express ...
The ability to reprogram somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offers an opportunity to generate pluripotent patient-specific cell lines that can help model human diseases. These iPSC lines could also be powerful tools for drug discovery and the development of cellul ...
Here, we present a highly efficient and reproducible method for the establishment of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) from embryonic day 3.5 (E3.5) whole blastocysts. This protocol involves the use of small molecules SB431542 and PD0325901, which inhibit transforming growth factor-β ...
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are pluripotent cells derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) of the developing embryo. hESCs culture as cell lines in vitro and possess great potential in such research fields as developmental biology and cell-based therapy, as well as such industrial purpo ...
In the vibrant field of optogenetics, optics and genetic targeting are combined to commandeer cellular functions, such as the neuronal action potential, by optically stimulating light-sensitive ion channels expressed in the cell membrane. One broadly applicable manifestation ...
Recent discovery of the light-activated ion channel, channelrhodopsin (ChR), has provided researchers a powerful and convenient tool to manipulate the membrane potential of specific cells with light. With genetic targeting of these channels and illumination of light to a specific l ...
Electrophysiological studies provide essential clues about the regulation and physiological function of ion channel proteins. Probing ion channel activity in vivo, though, often is challenging. This can limit the usefulness of such model organisms as Drosophila for electrophy ...
Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are expressed in almost every segment of renal nephron from the glomerulus to the inner medullary collecting duct. Serving as a route for Ca2+ entry from the intratubular space into cells in response to external cues, TRP channels modulate water– ...