Advanced Search
Published: Nov 20, 2018 DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3086 Views: 6414
Edited by: Joe Zhang Reviewed by: Iman Saramipoor Behbahan
Abstract
Endothelial cells (ECs), as important constituent of blood vessel are crucial to maintaining vascular tone, and any dysfunction in ECs could lead to many diseases of the vascular system. Due to limited availability of human samples, most of our research has been limited to animal models. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) due to their potential to differentiate into any cell type of the human body, including cells of the cardiovascular system, provide us with a great opportunity to study human vascular disease. This protocol describes an efficient, simple, and step-wise method to differentiate iPSCs to endothelial cells (iPSC-ECs) using small molecules and growth factors. Through the activation of WNT signaling pathway, iPSCs are differentiated towards a mesodermal lineage with the potential to generate endothelial progenitors. These progenitors are further stimulated with growth factors to generate endothelial cells (Figure 1A).
Figure 1. Stepwise differentiation strategy for iPSCs endothelial cell differentiation. A. chemicals/growth factors used at each stage of differentiation. B. Morphology of cells at different stage of differentiation. Scale bars = 500 µm.
Materials and Reagents
Equipment
Procedure
Category
Stem Cell > Pluripotent stem cell > Cell differentiation
Cell Biology > Cell isolation and culture > Cell differentiation
Do you have any questions about this protocol?
Post your question to gather feedback from the community. We will also invite the authors of this article to respond.
Tips for asking effective questions
+ Description
Write a detailed description. Include all information that will help others answer your question including experimental processes, conditions, and relevant images.
Share
Bluesky
X
Copy link