Effect of hypoxia on cerebral cortex differentiation of iPC cells

胚胎干细胞对于阐明哺乳动物早期发育中细胞命运决定的分子机制是有用的。胚胎干细胞聚集培养可有效诱导神经外胚层分化。然而，导致聚集培养中选择性神经分化的分子机制尚不完全清楚。在这项研究中，我们证明了氧敏感的缺氧诱导转录因子Hif-1a是胚胎干细胞神经承诺的重要调节因子。然而，我们无法观察到Hif-1a在神经承诺时间在人类iPS细胞的聚集培养中激活。为了进一步阐明iPS细胞神经外胚层分化的分子机制，有必要进行进一步的分析。

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are useful for elucidating the molecular mechanisms of cell fate decision in the early development of mammals. It has been shown that aggregate culture of ES cells efficiently induces neuroectoderm differentiation. However, the molecular mechanism that leads to selective neural differentiation in aggregate culture is not fully understood.In this study, we demonstrate that the oxygen-sensitive hypoxia-inducible transcription factor, Hif-1a, is an essential regulator for neural commitment of ES cells. However, we could not observe Hif-1a activation in aggregate culture of human iPS cells at the timing of neural commitment. Further analysis might be necessary to elucidate molecular mechanism of neuroectoderm differentiation for iPS cells.