Germ-like cell differentiation from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)
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Updated: May 17, 2026

Directed Differentiation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells towards T Lymphocytes
Published on: May 14, 2012
Zhiwei Niu1, Yue Hu, Zhili Chu
1College of Veterinary Medicine, Shaanxi Centre of Stem Cells Engineering & Technology, Key Lab for Animal Biotechnology of Agriculture Ministry of China, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China.
Abstract:
Historically, our understanding of molecular genetic aspects of germ cell development has been limited. Recently, results demonstrated that the derivation of pluripotent stem cells may provide the necessary genetic system to study germ cell development. Here, we characterized an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line, which can spontaneously differentiate into embryonic bodies (EBs) after 3 days of suspension culture, expressing specific markers of three germ layers. Then, we induced the iPSCs to differentiate into germ cells by culturing adherent EBs in retinoic acid (RA) and porcine follicular fluid (PFF) differentiation medium or seminiferous tubule transplantation. Our results indicated that RA and PFF were beneficial for the derivation of germ cells and oocyte-like cells from iPSCs, and iPSCs transplantation could make a contribution to repairing the testis of infertile mice. Our study offers an approach for further study on the development and the differentiation of germ cells derived from iPSCs.
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