Bioscience

Secrets of BMP in Stem Cell Neural Commitment Revealed

Recently, an international journal Development published the latest research results achieved by Jing Naihe Research Group, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS. This research revealed the functions of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling path at different stages of neural commitment of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). In this latest research, Zhang Kejing, Li Lingyu, both are doctoral students, and their colleagues of the Group found a period sensitive to the suppression of BMP exists during neuroinduction of mouse ESCs. Cells at this specific period correspond to the epiblast cells in the early embryo of mouse and can produce epiblast stem cells through in vitro culture. These epiblast stem cells obtained from in vitro culture (ESC derived EpiSCs, ESD-EpiSCs) are similar to in vivo epiblast stem cells in gene expression, potentiality of differentiation and other aspects. According to these ESD-EpiSCs, the process of neuroinduction of mouse ESCs can be divided into two stages, first from ESCs to ESD-EpiSCs and then from ESD-EpiSCs to neural stem cells. Further research showed that BMP signaling has different functions in two stages of neuroinduction of mouse ESCs. During the first stage, it inhibits the conversion of ESCs into EpiSCs through inhibiting FGF/ERK signaling path and upregulating Id gene. During the second stage, it promotes non-neural differentiation of ESD-EpiSCs through Id and other genes. This research divided the neural commitment of mouse ESCs into two stages and provided important experimental evidence for the correspondence between in vivo and in vitro neural commitment of mouse ESCs and a wholly new in vitro research model for further understanding of the switch of functions of signaling path between the maintenance of the pluripotency and determination of the fate of stem cells and staged research of other signaling paths during the development of early embryo.