SummaryHuman pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represent a renewable source of pancreatic beta cells for both basic research and therapeutic applications. Given this outstanding potential, significant efforts have been made to identify the signaling pathways that regulate pancreatic development in hPSC differentiation cultures. In this study, we demonstrate that the combination of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and nicotinamide signaling induces the generation of NKX6-1+ progenitors from all hPSC lines tested. Furthermore, we show that the size of the NKX6-1+ population is regulated by the duration of treatment with retinoic acid, fibroblast growth factor 10 (FGF10), and inhibitors of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and hedgehog signaling pathways. When transplanted into NOD scid gamma (NSG) recipients, these progenitors differentiate to give rise to exocrine and endocrine cells, including monohormonal insulin+ cells. Together, these findings provide an efficient and reproducible strategy for generating highly enriched populations of hPSC-derived beta cell progenitors for studies aimed at further characterizing their developmental potential in vivo and deciphering the pathways that regulate their maturation in vitro.

SUMMARY Here, we generated the first genome-scale shRNA library targeting lincRNAs in the mouse. We performed an unbiased loss-of-function study in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) and identified 20 novel lincRNAs involved in the maintenance of pluripotency. Among these, TUNA (Tcl1 Upstream Neuron-Associated lincRNA), was required for pluripotency and formed a complex with three RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). The TUNA–RBP complex was detected at the promoters of Nanog, Sox2, and Fgf4, and knockdown of TUNA or the individual RBPs inhibited neural differentiation of mESCs. TUNA showed striking evolutionary conservation of both sequence and central nervous system-restricted expression in vertebrates. Accordingly, knockdown of tuna in zebrafish caused impaired locomotor function, and TUNA expression in the brains of Huntington’s patients was significantly associated with disease grade. Our results suggest that the lincRNA TUNA plays a vital role in pluripotency and neural differentiation of ESCs and is associated with neurological function of adult vertebrates.

Small RNA-mediated regulation of iPS cell generationThe generation of induced pluripotent stem cells is limited by the low reprogramming efficiency of somatic cells. Here, three clusters of miRNAs are shown to enhance reprogramming efficiency by targeting the TGF-β and p53 pathways, which inhibit the process.

“Humanized” mouse models created by engraftment of immunodeficient mice with human hematolymphoid cells or tissues are an emerging technology with broad appeal across multiple biomedical disciplines. However, investigators wishing to utilize humanized mice with engrafted functional human immune systems are faced with a myriad of variables to consider. In this study, we analyze HSC engraftment methodologies using three immunodeficient mouse strains harboring the IL2rγnull mutation; NOD-scid IL2rγnull, NOD-Rag1null IL2rγnull, and BALB/c-Rag1null IL2rγnull mice. Strategies compared engraftment of human HSC derived from umbilical cord blood following intravenous injection into adult mice and intracardiac and intrahepatic injection into newborn mice. We observed that newborn recipients exhibited enhanced engraftment as compared to adult recipients. Irrespective of the protocol or age of recipient, both immunodeficient NOD strains support enhanced hematopoietic cell engraftment as compared to the BALB/c strain. Our data define key parameters for establishing humanized mouse models to study human immunity.