Human pluripotent stem cells can become all types of cells, but possess epigenetic mechanisms that block some cellular pathways, a Flemish-Dutch study in Nature Cell Biology reveals.

Naïve human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can in theory differentiate into virtually all possible cell types, just like pre-implantation morula embryos. But the groups of Maarten Dhaenens, Hendrik Marks, Peter Rugg-Gunn and Vincent Pasque have discovered mechanisms that limit the hPSCs.

The researchers from Ghent, Nijmegen, Cambridge and Leuven respectively looked specifically at the formation of trophoblast cells from hPSCs. Trophoblast cells normally arise four days after the fusion of a human sperm and egg cell from the morula embryo and form the basis for the placenta. However, trophoblast cells do not normally arise spontaneously from hPSCs, suggesting that formation is actively suppressed. Using a multi-omics approach, they investigated what that barrier might be.