Differentiation of embryonic stem cells is induced by GATA factors
- Junji Fujikura1,2,
- Eiji Yamato1,
- Shigenobu Yonemura3,
- Kiminori Hosoda2,
- Shinji Masui4,
- Kazuwa Nakao2,
- Jun-ichi Miyazaki1, and
- Hitoshi Niwa1,4,5
- 1Stem Cell Regulation Research, Area of Molecular Therapeutics, Course of Advanced Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 565-0871, Japan; 2Department of Medicine and Clinical Science, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan; 3Laboratory for Cellular Morphogenesis Research, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology and Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan; 4Laboratory for Pluripotent Cell Studies, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Kobe 650-0047, Japan
Abstract
Extraembryonic endoderm (ExE) is differentiated from the inner cell mass of the late blastocyst-stage embryo to form visceral and parietal endoderm, both of which have an important role in early embryogenesis. The essential roles of Gata-6 and Gata-4 on differentiation of visceral endoderm have been identified by analyses of knockout mice. Here we report that forced expression of either Gata-6 or Gata-4 in embryonic stem (ES) cells is sufficient to induce the proper differentiation program towards ExE. We believe that this is the first report of a physiological differentiation event induced by the ectopic expression of a transcription factor in ES cells.
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Footnotes
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↵5 Corresponding author.
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E-MAIL niwa{at}rtc.riken.go.jp; FAX 81-78-306-0101.
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Article and publication are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.968802.
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- Received December 10, 2001.
- Accepted February 11, 2002.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
