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Published on: March 25, 2022
Human stem cell models to study placode development, function and pathology
Eleonora Conti1, Oliver Harschnitz1
1Neurogenomics Research Centre, Human Technopole, Viale Rita Levi-Montalcini, 1, 20157 Milan, Italy.
Insights
Human pluripotent stem cells offer a scalable model to study embryonic placode development. This approach helps uncover human-specific mechanisms in placode formation, function, and disease.
Area of Science:
- Developmental biology
- Stem cell biology
- Human embryology
Background:
- Placodes are crucial embryonic structures derived from rostral ectoderm.
- They form diverse tissues like the anterior pituitary and cranial sensory ganglia.
- Placode development is largely studied in animal models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the recapitulation of human placode development using pluripotent stem cells.
- To highlight the utility of stem cells as an in vitro model.
- To identify human-specific developmental, functional, and pathological mechanisms.
Main Methods:
- Differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into placode progenitors and derivatives.
- Utilizing these cells as a scalable in vitro platform.
- Comparative analysis with existing animal model data.
Main Results:
- Human pluripotent stem cell differentiation effectively models placode development.
- This platform allows for scalable study of human placode progenitors.
- Potential to uncover human-specific developmental pathways and disease mechanisms.
Conclusions:
- Human pluripotent stem cells provide a valuable in vitro system for studying placode development.
- This model facilitates the identification of human-specific mechanisms in placode formation and pathology.
- Enables deeper understanding of congenital disorders affecting placode-derived structures.
Abstract:
Placodes are embryonic structures originating from the rostral ectoderm that give rise to highly diverse organs and tissues, comprising the anterior pituitary gland, paired sense organs and cranial sensory ganglia. Their development, including the underlying gene regulatory networks and signalling pathways, have been for the most part characterised in animal models. In this Review, we describe how placode development can be recapitulated by the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells towards placode progenitors and their derivatives, highlighting the value of this highly scalable platform as an optimal in vitro tool to study the development of human placodes, and identify human-specific mechanisms in their development, function and pathology.
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