Page 8 - G. Cell differentiation. division. and death

[G. Cell differentiation, division, and death-7]

In vitro differentiation of endothelial cells from porcine

epiblast stem cells

Bo-Gyeong Seo¹˙#, Soo-Been Jeon²˙⁶˙#, Sang-Ki Baek²˙⁷˙#, Hyeon-Geun Lee², Joon-Hong Shin², In-Won
Lee², Dae-Ky Moon², Hyo-Jin Kim¹, Keum-Chul Shin³, Jung-Woo Choi⁴, Tae-Suk Kim²˙⁸, Joon-Hee Lee²˙⁴˙*,

Cheol Hwangbo¹˙⁴˙*

¹Division of Applied Life Science , Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, south korea, ²Department of
Animal Bioscience, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, south korea, ³Department of Forest

Environmental Resources, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, south korea, ⁴Institute of Agriculture & Life
Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, south korea, ⁵College of Animal Life Science, Kangwon

National University, Chuncheon 24341, south korea, ⁶CHA Advanced Research Institute, CHA University,
Seongnam 13488, south korea, ⁷Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan, Seoul 05505, south korea, ⁸Department

of Animal Science and Biotechnology, Gyeongnam National University of Science and Technology, Jinju 52725,
south korea

Pluripotent Stem Cells (PSCs) have the ability of self-renewal that can retain the characteristics of the mother cell,

and of pluripotency that can differentiate into several body types. PSCs typically include embryonic stem cells (ESCs)
derived from the inner cell mass of the pre-implantation embryo, and epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) derived from the

epiblast of post-implantation embryo. Although PSCs are able to be used by differentiation into endothelial cells
(ECs) as a potential treatment for vascular diseases, human ESCs and induced pluripotent stem cells are followed

by ethical and safety issues. The goal of this study was to establish an efficient protocol that differentiates porcine
EpiSCs (pEpiSCs) into the ECs for applying the treatment of human vascular diseases. As results, AP-negative (-)

pEpiSCs cultured in endothelial cell growth basal medium-2 (EBM-2) differentiation medium in association with 50
ng/ml of VEGF for 8 days were changed morphologically like the feature of ECs, and expression of pluripotency-

associated markers (OCT-3/4, NANOG, SOX2 and C-MYC) in porcine differentiated cells was significantly decreased.
A specific endothelial cell marker was positively expressed in porcine differentiated cells when the pEpiSCs were

cultured in EBM-2 + 50 ng/ml of VEGF