In contrast, hematopoietic cell gene expression was upregulated, and the number of hematopoietic progenitor colonies was significantly enhanced in Wnt2 -/- EBs. Consistently, vascular plexi were poorly formed and neither beating cardiomyocytes nor α-actinin-staining cells were detectable in later stage Wnt2 -/- EBs. Later stage Wnt2 -/- EBs had either lower or undetectable expression of endothelial and cardiac genes compared with wild-type EBs. Although Flk1 + cells were increased, we found that endothelial cell and terminal cardiomyocyte differentiation was impaired, but hematopoietic cell differentiation was enhanced and smooth muscle cell differentiation was unchanged in Wnt2 -/- EBs. Wnt2 -/- embryoid bodies (EBs) generated increased numbers of Flk1 + cells and blast colony-forming cells compared with wild-type EBs, and had higher Flk1 expression at comparable stages of differentiation. In this report, we characterize the role of Wnt2 in mesoderm development during embryonic stem (ES) cell differentiation by creating ES cell lines in which Wnt2 was deleted. Our recent gene expression profiling analyses demonstrated that Wnt2 is highly expressed in Flk1 + cells, which serve as common progenitors of endothelial cells, blood cells, and mural cells. Glycobiology and Extracellular Matrices.
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