Effect of hypoxia on cerebral cortex differentiation of iPC cells

胚胎干细胞有助于阐明哺乳动物早期发育过程中决定细胞命运的分子机制。研究表明，ES细胞聚集性培养能有效地诱导神经外胚层分化。然而，在聚集体培养中导致选择性神经分化的分子机制还不完全清楚。在这项研究中，我们证明了氧敏感的低氧诱导转录因子Hif-1a是ES细胞神经承诺的重要调节因子。然而，在神经定位时，我们没有观察到Hif-1a在聚集培养的人iPS细胞中的激活。进一步分析iPS细胞分化神经外胚层的分子机制可能是必要的。

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.