Year 2

The objectives of our proposal are the isolations of blood-forming and heart-forming stem cells from human embryonic stem cell (hESCs) cultures, and the generation of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that eliminate residual teratogenic cells from transplantable populations of differentiated hESCs. For isolation of progenitors, we hypothesized that precursors derived from hESCs could be identified and isolated using mAbs that label unique combinations of lineage-specific cell surface molecules. We used hundreds of defined mAbs, generated hundreds of novel anti-hESC mAbs, and used these to isolate and characterize dozens of hESC-derived populations. We discovered four precursor types from early stages of differentiating cells, each expressing genes indicative of commitment to either embryonic or extraembryonic tissues. Together, these progenitors are candidates to give rise to meso-endodermal lineages (heart, blood, pancreas, etc), and yolk sac, umbilical cord and placental tissues, respectively. Importantly, we have found that cells of the meso-endodermal population give rise to beating cardiomyocytes. We are currently enriching cardiomyocyte precursors from this population using cardiac-specific genetic markers, and are assaying the putative progenitors using electrophysiological assays and by transplantation into animal hearts (a test for restoration of heart function). In addition, we established in vitro conditions that effectively promote hESC-differentiation towards the hematopoietic (blood) lineages and isolated populations that resemble hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in both surface phenotype as well as lineage potentials, as determined by assays in vitro. We have generated hESC-lines that express the anti-apoptotic gene BCL2, and have found that these cells produce significantly greater amounts of hematopoietic and cardiac cells, because of their increased survival during culturing and sorting. We are currently isolating hematopoietic precursors from BCL2-hESCs and will test their ability to engraft in immunodeficient mice, to examine the capacity of hESC-derived HSCs to regenerate the blood system. Finally, we have utilized the novel mAbs that we prepared against undifferentiated hESCs, to deplete residual teratogenic cells from differentiated cultures that were transplanted into animal models. We discovered that following depletion teratoma rarely formed, and we expect to determine a final cocktail of mAbs for removal of teratogenic cells from transplantation products this year.