Symmetry breaking, germ layer specification and axial organisation in aggregates of mouse embryonic stem cells
| Autor: | Susanne C. van den Brink, Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, Alfonso Martinez Arias, Tina Balayo, Peter Baillie-Johnson, David A. Turner, Sonja Nowotschin |
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| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: |
Cell type
Mesoderm Mouse Embryoid body Germ layer Biology Nervous System Cell Line Mice 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine medicine Animals Neural ectoderm Live cell imaging Molecular Biology Axis elongation Embryonic Stem Cells Polarisation Body Patterning Cell Aggregation 030304 developmental biology 0303 health sciences Gastrulation Endoderm Cell Polarity Symmetry breaking Self-organisation Flow Cytometry Stem Cells and Regeneration Embryonic stem cell Cell aggregation Cell biology medicine.anatomical_structure Microscopy Fluorescence embryonic structures Axial elongation Pattern formation Germ Layers 030217 neurology & neurosurgery Developmental Biology |
| Zdroj: | Development (Cambridge, England) |
| ISSN: | 1477-9129 0950-1991 |
| DOI: | 10.1242/dev.113001 |
| Popis: | Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) are clonal populations derived from preimplantation mouse embryos that can be propagated in vitro and, when placed into blastocysts, contribute to all tissues of the embryo and integrate into the normal morphogenetic processes, i.e. they are pluripotent. However, although they can be steered to differentiate in vitro into all cell types of the organism, they cannot organise themselves into structures that resemble embryos. When aggregated into embryoid bodies they develop disorganised masses of different cell types with little spatial coherence. An exception to this rule is the emergence of retinas and anterior cortex-like structures under minimal culture conditions. These structures emerge from the cultures without any axial organisation. Here, we report that small aggregates of mESCs, of about 300 cells, self-organise into polarised structures that exhibit collective behaviours reminiscent of those that cells exhibit in early mouse embryos, including symmetry breaking, axial organisation, germ layer specification and cell behaviour, as well as axis elongation. The responses are signal specific and uncouple processes that in the embryo are tightly associated, such as specification of the anteroposterior axis and anterior neural development, or endoderm specification and axial elongation. We discuss the meaning and implications of these observations and the potential uses of these structures which, because of their behaviour, we suggest to call ‘gastruloids’. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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