Liposomal packaging generates Wnt protein with in vivo biological activity.

Wnt signals exercise strong cell-biological and regenerative effects of considerable therapeutic value. There are, however, no specific Wnt agonists and no method for in vivo delivery of purified Wnt proteins. Wnts contain lipid adducts that are required for activity and we exploited this lipophilicity by packaging purified Wnt3a protein into lipid vesicles.

Temporal gene expression during differentiation of human embryonic stem cells and embryoid bodies.

Background: The aim of this study was to characterize human embryonic stem (ES) cells at the molecular level by performing large-scale complementary DNA (cDNA) analysis using DNA micro-arrays.

Methods: The transcription profile of human ES cells was determined by comparing it to 2, 10 and 30-day old embryoid bodies (EBs) using Affymetrix Genechip human micro-arrays (U133).

Results: According to this analysis we demonstrate that two human ES cell lines are more close to each other than to their differentiated derivatives.