Recent evidence suggests the existence of progenitor cells in adult tissues that are capable of differentiating into vascular structures as well as into all hematopoietic cell lineages. Here we describe an efficient and reproducible method for generating large numbers of these bipotential progenitors-known as hemangioblasts-from human embryonic stem (hES) cells using an in vitro differentiation system. Blast cells expressed gene signatures characteristic of hemangioblasts, and could be expanded, cryopreserved and differentiated into multiple hematopoietic lineages as well as into endothelial cells. When we injected these cells into rats with diabetes or into mice with ischemia-reperfusion injury of the retina, they localized to the site of injury in the damaged vasculature and appeared to participate in repair. Injection of the cells also reduced the mortality rate after myocardial infarction and restored blood flow in hind limb ischemia in mouse models. Our data suggest that hES-derived blast cells (hES-BCs) could be important in vascular repair.Although progenitor cells have recently been discovered that can enter the circulation in response to vascular injury and ischemia [1][2][3][4][5] , defining and isolating these cells has proven problematic. Circulating bone marrow-derived cells have also been shown to be important in normal physiologic maintenance and repair of the body's vasculature 6,7 with approximately 1-3% of endothelial cells at any one time being bone marrow-derived. Furthermore, the entire hematopoietic system has been hypothesized to originate from a transient population of hemangioblasts restricted to embryogenesis 8,9 . But recent evidence suggests that hemangioblasts or more mature endothelial progenitors may also exist in adult tissues and umbilical cord blood [2][3][4]10,11 . More direct proof for their existence was provided when the in vitro equivalent of the hemangioblast was isolated using a mouse embryonic stem cell differentiation system 12,13 . Recently a human hemangioblast cell population derived from hES cells was also identified using a procedure that consisted of serum-free differentiation in a mixture of cytokines followed by expansion in serum-containing © 2007 Nature Publishing Group Correspondence should be addressed to R.L. (rlanza@advancedcell.com). Note: Supplementary information is available on the Nature Methods website.
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RESULTS
Generation and characterization of blast cells from hES cellsWe developed a simple and efficient method for generating functional blast cells from hES cells with both hematopoietic and endothelial potential in defined media, using a two-step strategy. First, we generated early-stage embryoid bodies (EBs) from hES cells (WA01 (H1)−GFP + ) cultured...