Efficient and Scalable Generation of Primordial Germ Cells in 2D Culture Using Basement Membrane Extract Overlay

Temporally resolved single cell transcriptomics in a human model of amniogenesis

“…Recently, single cell transcriptomics analysis has emerged as a valuable tool to ground findings from in vitro models with natural as well as cultured primate embryo systems (e.g., (Yang et al, 2021;Zhao et al, 2024;Zheng et al, 2022)). To aid in additional investigations, several culture systems have been developed to generate amnion, and single cell transcriptomic analyses have been performed in several of the systems (e.g., (Chen et al, 2019;Minn et al, 2020;Overeem et al, 2023;Rostovskaya et al, 2022)). Future transcriptomic comparisons of the amnion in each of these models will enable us to gain additional insights into amniogenic mechanisms.…”

“…Yet, experimental dissection of the molecular mechanisms involved in this process is difficult in these in vivo models. To enable molecular and cellular investigations, we and others developed human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived amnion models and showed that BMP signaling plays a crucial role in initiating amniogenesis (Chen et al, 2021;Overeem et al, 2023;Shao et al, 2017a;Shao et al, 2017b;Zheng et al, 2019). Recently, we further explored the BMP-dependent amniogenic transcriptional cascade, identifying several distinct transcriptional stages, as well as a requirement for TFAP2A-dependent transcription in regulating amnion fate progression (Sekulovski et al, 2023).…”