Publications by authors named "Michael Lapaglia"
Background: Embryonic stem (ES) cells have been investigated as a potential replacement therapy for failed organs, such as the liver. However, detection of hepatic engraftment from candidate stem cells has been difficult due to low engraftment efficiency. Previous detection methods required that the graft be processed by molecular and/or immunohistochemical techniques, limiting further functional studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMurine embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent, but significant functional engraftment does not occur when they are introduced into the liver. However, here we demonstrate that functional liver engraftment does occur if the ES cells (from strain 129 mice) are first differentiated in vitro for 7 days in the presence of FGF. Strikingly, when these differentiated cells, termed putative endodermal precursors (PEPs), were injected into their livers, two of six C57BL/6 and four of eight BALB/c factor IX (F-IX)-deficient mice survived for >7 days, even though the recipients were of a different strain and, in the case of the BALB/c recipients, had a complete MHC mismatch.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Modifications in vitro have been used to direct embryonic stem (ES) cells toward endodermal phenotypes including hepatocytes; however, developmental correlates and evidence of biologic activity is lacking, and critical cell-cell interactions have not been investigated. In this study, we hypothesized that cardiac mesoderm (CM) signals ES cells in co-culture to undergo differentiation toward early hepatocyte lineage as determined by morphology and induction of genes essential for endodermal competence and hepatocyte development.
Methods: Green fluorescent protein ES derived from A129 mice were cultured with or without embryonic chick cardiac mesoderm.