Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Commun Biol. 2021 Sep 6;4(1):1039. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02571-7.
The cardiac valvular endothelial cells (VECs) are an ideal cell source that could be used for making the valve organoids. However, few studies have been focused on the derivation of this important cell type. Here we describe a two-step chemically defined xeno-free method for generating VEC-like cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). HPSCs were specified to KDR/ISL1 multipotent cardiac progenitors (CPCs), followed by differentiation into valve endothelial-like cells (VELs) via an intermediate endocardial cushion cell (ECC) type. Mechanistically, administration of TGFb1 and BMP4 may specify VEC fate by activating the NOTCH/WNT signaling pathways and previously unidentified targets such as ATF3 and KLF family of transcription factors. When seeded onto the surface of the de-cellularized porcine aortic valve (DCV) matrix scaffolds, hPSC-derived VELs exhibit superior proliferative and clonogenic potential than the primary VECs and human aortic endothelial cells (HAEC). Our results show that hPSC-derived valvular cells could be efficiently generated from hPSCs, which might be used as seed cells for construction of valve organoids or next generation tissue engineered heart valves.
心脏瓣膜内皮细胞(VECs)是一种理想的细胞来源,可以用于制造瓣膜类器官。然而,很少有研究关注这种重要细胞类型的衍生。在这里,我们描述了一种两步化学定义的无动物来源的方法,用于从人多能干细胞(hPSC)中生成 VEC 样细胞。hPSC 被指定为 KDR/ISL1 多能性心脏祖细胞(CPC),然后通过中间心内膜垫细胞(ECC)类型分化为瓣膜内皮样细胞(VEL)。在机制上,TGFb1 和 BMP4 的给药可能通过激活 NOTCH/WNT 信号通路和以前未被识别的靶标,如 ATF3 和 KLF 转录因子家族,来指定 VEC 命运。当接种到脱细胞猪主动脉瓣(DCV)基质支架表面时,hPSC 衍生的 VEL 表现出比原代 VEC 和人主动脉内皮细胞(HAEC)更高的增殖和克隆形成潜力。我们的结果表明,hPSC 衍生的瓣膜细胞可以从 hPSC 中有效生成,可作为构建瓣膜类器官或下一代组织工程心脏瓣膜的种子细胞。