The differentiation potential of 17 human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines was compared. Some lines exhibit a marked propensity to differentiate into specific lineages, often with >100-fold differences in lineage-specific gene expression. For example, HUES 8 is best for pancreatic differentiation and HUES 3 for cardiomyocyte generation. These non-trivial differences in developmental potential among hES cell lines point to the importance of screening and deriving lines for lineage-specific differentiation.

Genetic analysis in mice has demonstrated a crucial role of the Met tyrosine kinase receptor and its ligand, hepatocyte growth factor͞ scatter factor (HGF͞SF), in development of the liver, muscle, and placenta. Here, we use conditional mutagenesis in mice to analyze the function of Met during liver regeneration, using the Mx-cre transgene to introduce the mutation in the adult. After partial hepatectomy in mice carrying the Mx-cre-induced Met mutation, regeneration of the liver is impaired. Comparison of signal transduction pathways in control and mutant livers indicates that Met and other signaling receptors cooperate to fully activate particular signaling molecules, for instance, the protein kinase Akt. However, activation of the Erk1͞2 kinase during liver regeneration depends exclusively on Met. Signaling crosstalk is thus an important aspect of the regulation of liver regeneration. Analysis of cell cycle progression of hepatocytes in conditional Met mutant mice indicates a defective exit from quiescence and diminished entry into S phase. Impaired liver regeneration is accompanied by compensatory physiological responses that include prolonged up-regulation of HGF͞SF and IL-6 in peripheral blood. Our data demonstrate that the HGF͞SF͞Met signaling system is essential not only during liver development but also for the regeneration of the organ in the adult.

Summary An essential step for therapeutic and research applications of stem cells is the ability to differentiate them into specific cell types. Endodermal cell derivatives, including lung, liver and pancreas, are of interest for regenerative medicine, but efforts to produce these cells have been met with only modest success. In a screen of 4000 compounds, two cell permeable small molecules were indentified that direct differentiation of ESCs into the endodermal lineage. These compounds induce nearly 80% of ESCs to form definitive endoderm, a higher efficiency than that achieved with Activin A or Nodal, commonly used protein inducers of endoderm. The chemically induced endoderm expresses multiple endodermal markers, can participate in normal development when injected into the embryonic gut tube and can form pancreatic progenitors in vitro. The application of small molecules to differentiate mouse and human ESCs into endoderm, and pancreatic progenitors represents a step toward achieving a reproducible and efficient production of desired ES cell derivatives.

Stepwise differentiation from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to functional insulin-secreting beta cells will identify key steps in beta-cell development and may yet prove useful for transplantation therapy for diabetics. An essential step in this schema is the generation of pancreatic progenitors--cells that express Pdx1 and produce all the cell types of the pancreas. High-content chemical screening identified a small molecule, (-)-indolactam V, that induces differentiation of a substantial number of Pdx1-expressing cells from human ESCs. The Pdx1-expressing cells express other pancreatic markers and contribute to endocrine, exocrine and duct cells, in vitro and in vivo. Further analyses showed that (-)-indolactam V works specifically at one stage of pancreatic development, inducing pancreatic progenitors from definitive endoderm. This study describes a chemical screening platform to investigate human ESC differentiation and demonstrates the generation of a cell population that is a key milepost on the path to making beta cells.

Wound healing of the skin is a crucial regenerative process in adult mammals. We examined wound healing in conditional mutant mice, in which the c-Met gene that encodes the receptor of hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor was mutated in the epidermis by cre recombinase. c-Met–deficient keratinocytes were unable to contribute to the reepithelialization of skin wounds. In conditional c-Met mutant mice, wound closure was slightly attenuated, but occurred exclusively by a few (5%) keratinocytes that had escaped recombination. This demonstrates that the wound process selected and amplified residual cells that express a functional c-Met receptor. We also cultured primary keratinocytes from the skin of conditional c-Met mutant mice and examined them in scratch wound assays. Again, closure of scratch wounds occurred by the few remaining c-Met–positive cells. Our data show that c-Met signaling not only controls cell growth and migration during embryogenesis but is also essential for the generation of the hyperproliferative epithelium in skin wounds, and thus for a fundamental regenerative process in the adult.

Efficient gene editing is essential to fully utilize human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in regenerative medicine. Custom endonuclease-based gene targeting involves two mechanisms of DNA repair: homology directed repair (HDR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). HDR is the preferred mechanism for common applications such knock-in, knock-out or precise mutagenesis, but remains inefficient in hPSCs. Here, we demonstrate that synchronizing synchronizing hPSCs in G2/M with ABT phase increases on-target gene editing, defined as correct targeting cassette integration, 3 to 6 fold. We observed improved efficiency using ZFNs, TALENs, two CRISPR/Cas9, and CRISPR/Cas9 nickase to target five genes in three hPSC lines: three human embryonic stem cell lines, neural progenitors and diabetic iPSCs. neural progenitors and diabetic iPSCs. Reversible synchronization has no effect on pluripotency or differentiation. The increase in on-target gene editing is locus-independent and specific to the cell cycle phase as G2/M phase enriched cells show a 6-fold increase in targeting efficiency compared to cells in G1 phase. Concurrently inhibiting NHEJ with SCR7 does not increase HDR or improve gene targeting efficiency further, indicating that HR is the major DNA repair mechanism after G2/M phase arrest. The approach outlined here makes gene editing in hPSCs a more viable tool for disease modeling, regenerative medicine and cell-based therapies.

Decoding the molecular composition of individual Ngn3 + endocrine progenitors (EPs) during pancreatic morphogenesis could provide insight into the mechanisms regulating hormonal cell fate. Here, we identify population markers and extensive cellular diversity including four EP subtypes reflecting EP maturation using high-resolution single-cell RNA-sequencing of the e14.5 and e16.5 mouse pancreas. While e14.5 and e16.5 EPs are constantly born and share select genes, these EPs are overall transcriptionally distinct concomitant with changes in the underlying epithelium. As a consequence, e16.5 EPs are not the same as e14.5 EPs: e16.5 EPs have a higher propensity to form beta cells. Analysis of e14.5 and e16.5 EP chromatin states reveals temporal shifts, with enrichment of beta cell motifs in accessible regions at later stages. Finally, we provide transcriptional maps outlining the route progenitors take as they make cell fate decisions, which can be applied to advance the in vitro generation of beta cells.

One goal of regenerative medicine, to use stem cells to replace cells lost by injury or disease, depends on producing an excess of the relevant cell for study or transplantation. To this end, the stepwise differentiation of stem cells into specialized derivatives has been successful for some cell types1–3, but a major problem remains the inefficient conversion of cells from one stage of differentiation to the next. If specialized cells are to be produced in large numbers it will be necessary to expand progenitor cells, without differentiation, at some steps of the process. Using the pancreatic lineage as a model for embryonic-stem-cell differentiation, we demonstrate that this is a solvable problem. Co-culture with organ-matched mesenchyme permits proliferation and self-renewal of progenitors, without differentiation, and enables an expansion of more than a million-fold for human endodermal cells with full retention of their developmental potential. This effect is specific both to the mesenchymal cell and to the progenitor being amplified. Progenitors that have been serially expanded on mesenchyme give rise to glucose-sensing, insulin-secreting cells when transplanted in vivo. Theoretically, the identification of stage-specific renewal signals can be incorporated into any scheme for the efficient production of large numbers of differentiated cells from stem cells and may therefore have wide application in regenerative biology.