Conformal Coating of Stem Cell-Derived Islets for β Cell Replacement in Type 1 Diabetes.

The scarcity of donors and need for immunosuppression limit pancreatic islet transplantation to a few patients with labile type 1 diabetes. Transplantation of encapsulated stem cell-derived islets (SC islets) might extend the applicability of islet transplantation to a larger cohort of patients. Transplantation of conformal-coated islets into a confined well-vascularized site allows long-term diabetes reversal in fully MHC-mismatched diabetic mice without immunosuppression.

Combined Inhibition of DYRK1A, SMAD, and Trithorax Pathways Synergizes to Induce Robust Replication in Adult Human Beta Cells.

Small-molecule inhibitors of dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) induce human beta cells to proliferate, generating a labeling index of 1.5%-3%. Here, we demonstrate that combined pharmacologic inhibition of DYRK1A and transforming growth factor beta superfamily (TGFβSF)/SMAD signaling generates remarkable further synergistic increases in human beta cell proliferation (average labeling index, 5%-8%, and as high as 15%-18%), and increases in both mouse and human beta cell numbers.

Efficient, footprint-free human iPSC genome editing by consolidation of Cas9/CRISPR and piggyBac technologies.

Genome editing of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) offers unprecedented opportunities for in vitro disease modeling and personalized cell replacement therapy. The introduction of Cas9-directed genome editing has expanded adoption of this approach. However, marker-free genome editing using standard protocols remains inefficient, yielding desired targeted alleles at a rate of ∼1-5%.

Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 Receptor-Dependent Pathway Drives Epicardial Adipose Tissue Formation After Myocardial Injury.

Background: Epicardial adipose tissue volume and coronary artery disease are strongly associated, even after accounting for overall body mass. Despite its pathophysiological significance, the origin and paracrine signaling pathways that regulate epicardial adipose tissue's formation and expansion are unclear.

Methods: We used a novel modified mRNA-based screening approach to probe the effect of individual paracrine factors on epicardial progenitors in the adult heart.

Dynamic GATA4 enhancers shape the chromatin landscape central to heart development and disease.

How stage-specific enhancer dynamics modulate gene expression patterns essential for organ development, homeostasis and disease is not well understood. Here, we addressed this question by mapping chromatin occupancy of GATA4--a master cardiac transcription factor--in heart development and disease. We find that GATA4 binds and participates in establishing active chromatin regions by stimulating H3K27ac deposition, which facilitates GATA4-driven gene expression.

ccm2-like is required for cardiovascular development as a novel component of the Heg-CCM pathway.

The Heart of Glass-Cerebral Cavernous Malformation (Heg-CCM) pathway is essential for normal cardiovascular development in zebrafish and mouse. In zebrafish, the Heg-CCM pathway mutants santa(ccm1/san), valentine (ccm2/vtn), and heart of glass (heg) exhibit severely dilated hearts and inflow tracts and a complete absence of blood circulation. We identified a novel gene based on its sequence identity with ccm2, which we have named ccm2-like (ccm2l), and characterized its role in cardiovascular development.