| Embryonic stem (ES) cells derived from the inner cell mass/epiblast of the blastocyst, have the ability to remain undifferentiated and proliferate indefinitely in vitro. Embryoid body (EB) grown from ES cells represent a well studied in vitro system of early mouse embryogenesis, which can help to understand the nature of endodermal, mesodermal and ectodermal differentiation. Inner cell mass of mouse blastocyst, the origin of ES cells, expresses platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1/CD31), which suggests PECAM-1 might be the marker of undifferentiated ES cells. The aim of the present study were to explore an optional condition to induce mouse ES cells to differentiate into endothelial cells, to establish in vitro models of vasculogenesis and angiogenesis and to investigate expression pattern of PECAM-1 during ES cells in vitro differentiation.1. (1) Mouse ES cells were cultured in differentiation medium containing a cocktail of growth factors to induce formation of EBs. At day 11, EBs were harvested and suspended in rat-tail collagen type I with the same cocktail of cytokines cultured for three additional days. The differentiation processes of ES cells into endothelial cells were examined using immunostaining of EBs slices and whole-mount immunocytochemistry of EBs; (2) Generation of EB from ES cells by hang-drop methods induced EB-derived cells differentiated into neurocyte in the presence of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA). (3) For hematopoietic differentiation, EB-derived cells were cultured in methylcellulose-containing medium supplement with hematopoietic cytokines. The results indicated that under appropriate culture conditions, ES cells spontaneously differentiated and formed EBs containing vascular structures and tubular channels, which were positive for PECAM-1 co-differentiated with smooth muscle; 11 days old EBs embedded into type I collagen, in the presence of angiogenic factors, rapidly...
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