Baicalin maintains late-stage functional cardiomyocytes in embryoid bodies derived from murine embryonic stem cells.

Background/aims: Low efficiency of cardiomyocyte (CM) differentiation from embryonic stem (ES) cells limits their therapeutic use. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of baicalin, a natural flavonoid compound, on the in vitro cardiac differentiation of murine ES cells.

Methods: The induction of ES cells into cardiac-like cells was performed by embryoid body (EB)-based differentiation method.

Coordinated waves of gene expression during neuronal differentiation of embryonic stem cells as basis for novel approaches to developmental neurotoxicity testing.

As neuronal differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) recapitulates embryonic neurogenesis, disturbances of this process may model developmental neurotoxicity (DNT). To identify the relevant steps of in vitro neurodevelopment, we implemented a differentiation protocol yielding neurons with desired electrophysiological properties. Results from focussed transcriptional profiling suggested that detection of non-cytotoxic developmental disturbances triggered by toxicants such as retinoic acid (RA) or cyclopamine was possible.

Markers of murine embryonic and neural stem cells, neurons and astrocytes: reference points for developmental neurotoxicity testing.

Developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) is a serious concern for environmental chemicals, as well as for food and drug constituents. Animal-based DNT models have relatively low sensitivity, and they are burdened by high work-load, cost and animal ethics. Murine embryonic stem cells (mESC) recapitulate several critical processes involved in the development of the nervous system if they are induced to differentiate into neural cells.