Meri T. Firpo

TL;DR: Kinetic analysis demonstrated that the blast colony-forming cells represent a transient population, preceding the establishment of the primitive erythroid and other lineage-restricted precursors, which may represent the earliest stage of embryonic haematopoietic commitment.

TL;DR: It is shown that activin A is secreted by mouse embryonic feeder layers (mEFs) and that culture medium enriched with activin B is capable of maintaining hESCs in the undifferentiated state for >20 passages without the need for feeder layer, conditioned medium from mEFs, or STAT3 activation.

TL;DR: Results demonstrate that differentiation of human ES cells into EBs in vitro results in formation of cells that express markers specific to gonocytes, including expression of VASA, BOL, SCP1, SCP3, GDF9 and TEKT1.

TL;DR: It is reported that STAT3 activation is not sufficient to block hES cell differentiation when the cells are grown on mouse feeder cells or when they are treated with conditioned media from feedercells, and the existence of an as‐yet‐unidentified factor in the conditioned media of mouseFeeder layer cells that acts to maintain h ES cell renewal in a STAT3‐independent manner is demonstrated.

TL;DR: It is suggested that the observed differences in gene expression between independently-derived hESC lines may reflect inherent differences in the initial culture of each line and/or the underlying genetics of the embryos from which the lines were derived.