Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Since the first successful isolation and cultivation of human embryonic stem cells at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1998, there has been high levels of both interest and controversy in this area of research. This book provides a concise overview of an exciting field, covering the characteristics of both human embryonic stem cells and pluripotent stem cells from other human cell lineages. The following chapters describe state-of-the-art differentiation and characterization of specific ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm-derived lineages from human embryonic stem cells, emphasizing how these can be used to study human developmental mechanisms. A further chapter discusses genetic manipulation of human ES cells. The concluding section covers therapeutic applications of human ES cells, as well as addressing the ethical and legal issues that this research have raised.

12.3.2 Silencing gene expression in ES cells.

Book Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Table of Contents -- Contributors -- Abbreviations -- Foreword -- Preface -- 1. Biology of embryonic stem cells -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Derivation and definition of mouse ES cells -- 1.2.1 Pluripotency of ES cells -- 1.2.2 Self-renewal of ES cells -- 1.2.3 Markers of ES cells -- 1.3 The molecular basis of ES cell pluripotency -- 1.3.1 Transcriptional regulators -- 1.3.2 LIF signaling -- 1.3.3 LIF signaling via JAK/STAT promotes self-renewal of ES cells -- 1.3.4 LIF signaling via ERKs appears to promote ES cell differentiation -- 1.3.5 LIF-independent signaling -- 1.3.6 Gene profiling of pluripotent cells -- 1.3.7 The ES cell cycle -- 1.4 Differentiation of ES cells -- 1.4.1 Spontaneous differentiation: the broad potential of ES cells in culture -- 1.4.2 Enrichment for differentiated cell populations -- 1.4.3 Directed differentiation of ES cells in culture -- 1.4.4 Formation of specialized cell types: combining lineage induction with positional information -- 1.4.5 Understanding embryogenesis through ES cell modeling -- 1.5 Applications of ES cell technology -- 1.5.1 Animal models of development and disease -- 1.5.2 Cell-based th…