Novel Approaches in Stem Cell Research

A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Stem Cells".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (7 April 2022) | Viewed by 3398

Special Issue Editor

Institute of Neuroanatomy & Developmental Biology INDB, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Österbergstr. 3, 72074 Tubingen, Germany
Interests: pluripotent stem cells; neurosensory systems; stem cell differentiation; neuroplasticity; neurogenesis; retinal organoids; gene therapy; organ-on-chip
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Besides general shortcomings and ethical problems of animal models with regard to clinical, pharmacological and biological research, broadly used animals such as mice do not represent the human organisms in many regards. Stem cells and their resulting model systems comprise the important 3R-potential to significantly reduce, refine and replace current animal models, and to increase the translatability of results from preclinical to clinical phases to make the entire drug development process much more economic, quicker, and safer. A variety of novel models based on stem cells and their differentiated progeny have appeared just lately. Here, not only organoids and assembloids, but also Organ-on-a-chip (OoaC) Systems were found that combine unique features of cell-assays (human genes) and animal models (complex tissues and blood circulation). Advanced stem cell model systems open up entirely new possibilities in research and therefore should be considered as one of the most promising techniques for current and future approaches.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Liebau
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • pluripotent stem cells
  • stem cell differentiation
  • models
  • organ-on-chip
  • assembloids

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 4256 KiB  
Article
Functional Genomic Screening in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Reveals New Roadblocks in Early Pancreatic Endoderm Formation
by Jana Krüger, Markus Breunig, Lino Pascal Pasquini, Mareen Morawe, Alexander Groß, Frank Arnold, Ronan Russell, Thomas Seufferlein, Ninel Azoitei, Hans A. Kestler, Cécile Julier, Sandra Heller, Meike Hohwieler and Alexander Kleger
Cells 2022, 11(3), 582; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cells11030582 - 08 Feb 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2662
Abstract
Human pluripotent stem cells, with their ability to proliferate indefinitely and to differentiate into virtually all cell types of the human body, provide a novel resource to study human development and to implement relevant disease models. Here, we employed a human pancreatic differentiation [...] Read more.
Human pluripotent stem cells, with their ability to proliferate indefinitely and to differentiate into virtually all cell types of the human body, provide a novel resource to study human development and to implement relevant disease models. Here, we employed a human pancreatic differentiation platform complemented with an shRNA screen in human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) to identify potential drivers of early endoderm and pancreatic development. Deep sequencing followed by abundancy ranking pinpointed six top hit genes potentially associated with either improved or impaired endodermal differentiation, which were selected for functional validation in CRISPR-Cas9 mediated knockout (KO) lines. Upon endoderm differentiation (DE), particularly the loss of SLC22A1 and DSC2 led to impaired differentiation efficiency into CXCR4/KIT-positive DE cells. qPCR analysis also revealed changes in differentiation markers CXCR4, FOXA2, SOX17, and GATA6. Further differentiation of PSCs to the pancreatic progenitor (PP) stage resulted in a decreased proportion of PDX1/NKX6-1-positive cells in SLC22A1 KO lines, and in DSC2 KO lines when differentiated under specific culture conditions. Taken together, our study reveals novel genes with potential roles in early endodermal development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Approaches in Stem Cell Research)
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