Trophoblast differentiation of human embryonic stem cells
31st July, Wednesday, 4:00‐5:00 pm, ChE Seminar hall
Trophoblast cells can be obtained from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) through treatment with BMP4. We studied the biochemical pathways leading to terminal differentiation of hESC-derived trophoblasts and show that continued inhibition of Activin/Nodal signaling leads to the formation of invasive cytotrophoblasts, whereas temporal inhibition followed by loss of inhibition of Activin/Nodal signaling leads to the formation of syncytiotrophoblasts. We further explored the epigenetic properties of hESC-derived trophoblasts and show that hypomethylation of the ELF5-2b promoter locus can be achieved, similar to as present in primary human villous cytotrophoblasts. Therefore, we showed that the epigenetic restriction towards trophoblast differentiation that is reported in mouse ESCs is not present in human ESCs, and that trophoblast differentiation could be achieved in hESCs.