title: Vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation from human stem/progenitor cells.
abstract: Transplantation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is a promising cellular therapy to promote angiogenesis and wound healing. However, VSMCs are derived from diverse embryonic sources which may influence their role in the development of vascular disease and in its therapeutic modulation. Despite progress in understanding the mechanisms of VSMC differentiation, there remains a shortage of robust methods for generating lineage-specific VSMCs from pluripotent and adult stem/progenitor cells in serum-free conditions. Here we describe a method for differentiating pluripotent stem cells, such as embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, as well as skin-derived precursors, into lateral plate-derived VSMCs including 'coronary-like' VSMCs and neural crest-derived VSMC, respectively. We believe this approach will have broad applications in modeling origin-specific disease vulnerability and in developing personalized cell-based vascular grafts for regenerative medicine.
authors.affiliation: McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Toronto General Research Institute, 101 College St., Toronto, Ontario M5G-1L7, Canada; Division of Experimental Therapeutics, Toronto General Research Institute, 101 College St., Toronto, Ontario M5G-1L7, Canada.
authors.forename: Sarah K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Steinbach
authors.affiliation: McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Toronto General Research Institute, 101 College St., Toronto, Ontario M5G-1L7, Canada; Division of Experimental Therapeutics, Toronto General Research Institute, 101 College St., Toronto, Ontario M5G-1L7, Canada; Departments of Medicine, University of Toronto, 1 Kings College Circle, Toronto, Ontario M5S-1A8, Canada; Departments of Physiology, University of Toronto, 1 Kings College Circle, Toronto, Ontario M5S-1A8, Canada; Departments of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology, University of Toronto, 1 Kings College Circle, Toronto, Ontario M5S-1A8, Canada; Heart and Stroke Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence, University of Toronto, 1 Kings College Circle, Toronto, Ontario M5S-1A8, Canada; Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, University of Toronto, 1 Kings College Circle, Toronto, Ontario M5S-1A8, Canada; Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, University Health Network, 200 Elizabeth St., Toronto, Ontario M5G-2C4, Canada. Electronic address: mansoor.husain@uhn.ca.
authors.forename: Mansoor
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Husain
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D016895:Culture Media, Serum-Free; D000066449:Human Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D057026:Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000166:cytology; D032389:Myocytes, Smooth Muscle / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016895:Culture Media, Serum-Free
keywords: Coronary; Embryonic stem cells; Induced pluripotent stem cells; Lateral plate mesoderm; Neural crest; Serum-free; Vascular smooth muscle cell