title: Development of a rapid screen for the endodermal differentiation potential of human pluripotent stem cell lines.
abstract: A challenge facing the human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) field is the variability observed in differentiation potential of hPSCs. Variability can lead to time consuming and costly optimisation to yield the cell type of interest. This is especially relevant for the differentiation of hPSCs towards the endodermal lineages. Endodermal cells have the potential to yield promising new knowledge and therapies for diseases affecting multiple organ systems, including lung, thymus, intestine, pancreas and liver, as well as applications in regenerative medicine and toxicology. Providing a means to rapidly, cheaply and efficiently assess the differentiation potential of multiple hPSCs is of great interest. To this end, we have developed a rapid small molecule based screen to assess the endodermal potential (EP) of hPSCs, based solely on definitive endoderm (DE) morphology. This drastically reduces the cost and time to identify lines suitable for use in deriving endodermal lineages. We demonstrate the efficacy of this screen using 10 different hPSCs, including 4 human embryonic stem cell lines (hESCs) and 6 human induced pluripotent stem cell lines (hiPSCs). The screen clearly revealed lines amenable to endodermal differentiation, and only lines that passed our morphological assessment were capable of further differentiation to hepatocyte like cells (HLCs).
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO Box 1112 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Siller
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO Box 1112 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Naumovska
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO Box 1112 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Santosh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mathapati
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO Box 1112 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lycke
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO Box 1112 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Greenhough
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO Box 1112 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway.|Norwegian Center for Stem Cell Research, PO Box 1112 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway.|Institute of Immunology, Oslo University Hospital-Rikshospitalet, PO Box 4950 Nydalen, Oslo 0424, Norway.
authors.forename: Gareth J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002460:Cell Line; D004707:Endoderm / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D000066449:Human Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D057026:Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*