Mouse and human blastocyst-derived stem cells: vive les differences

Lessons learned from conserved vertebrate developmental pathways have catalyzed rapid advances in pluripotent stem cell differentiation towards therapeutically relevant cell types. The most highly conserved phases of development are associated with the early patterning of the body plan - the so-called phylotypic stage. Both prior to and after this stage there is much more divergence across species. Developmental differences between human and mouse at the blastocyst and early post-implantation stages might help explain the differences among the different stem cell lines derived from these embryos. A better understanding of these early stages of human development will aid our ability to generate and manipulate human stem cells and their derivatives.