Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: Trophoblast stem (TS) cells are capable of differentiating into all subtypes of trophoblast cells. Lin28a, an RNA-binding protein involved in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, is highly expressed in undifferentiated TS cells but is greatly reduced in its expression in differentiated trophoblast cells. Lin28a is known as a major factor controlling growth and metabolism through regulation of the maturation of let-7 microRNA. Consideri...

Introduction: Trophoblast stem cells (TSC) maintain their undifferentiated status under the presence of fibroblast growth factor 4 (FGF4), heparin and feeder cell-conditioned medium (CM). It has been reported that activin A can replace CM. However, even in such stem cell condition, a portion of TSC spontaneously undergoes differentiation. In addition, when TSC are induced to differentiate, all trophoblast subtypes autonomously appear without the addition of any exogenous facto...