Chen Yu

Publications (3)33.46 Total impact

• Article: Retinoic acid enhances the generation of hematopoietic progenitors from human embryonic stem cell-derived hemato-vascular precursors.

  Chen Yu, Yanxia Liu, Zhenchuan Miao, Ming Yin, Wei Lu, Yaxin Lv, Mingxiao Ding, Hongkui Deng
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  ABSTRACT: Current induction schemes directing hematopoietic differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are not well defined to mimic the sequential stages of hematopoietic development in vivo. Here, we report a 3-stage method to direct differentiation of hESCs toward hematopoietic progenitors in chemically defined mediums. In the first 2 stages, we efficiently generated T-positive primitive streak/mesendoderm cells and kinase domain receptor-positive (KDR(+)) platelet-derived growth factor receptor α-negative (PDGFRα(-)) hemato-vascular precursors sequentially. In the third stage, we found that cells in a spontaneous differentiation condition mainly formed erythroid colonies. Addition of all-trans retinoic acid (RA) greatly enhanced generation of hematopoietic progenitors in this stage while suppressing erythroid development. The RA-treated cells highly expressed definitive hematopoietic genes, formed large numbers of multilineage and myeloid colonies, and gave rise to greater than 45% CD45(+) hematopoietic cells. When hematopoietic progenitors were selected with CD34 and C-Kit, greater than 95% CD45(+) hematopoietic cells could be generated. In addition, we found that endogenous RA signaling at the second stage was required for vascular endothelial growth factor/basic fibroblast growth factor-induced hemato-vascular specification, whereas exogenously applied RA efficiently induced KDR(-)PDGFRα(+) paraxial mesoderm cells. Our study suggests that RA signaling plays diverse roles in human mesoderm and hematopoietic development.
  Blood 12/2010; 116(23):4786-94. · 9.90 Impact Factor
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  Available from: beyotime.com

  Article: Generation of homogeneous PDX1(+) pancreatic progenitors from human ES cell-derived endoderm cells.

  Jun Cai, Chen Yu, Yanxia Liu, Song Chen, Yuxuan Guo, Jun Yong, Wei Lu, Mingxiao Ding, Hongkui Deng
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  ABSTRACT: One key step in producing insulin-secreting cells from human embryonic stem (hES) cells is the generation of pancreatic and duodenal homeobox gene 1 (PDX1)-expressing pancreatic progenitor cells. All-trans retinoic acid (RA) has important roles in pancreas development and is widely used to induce pancreatic differentiation of ES cells. When RA was added directly to the activin A-induced hES cells, <20% cells were positive for the pancreatic marker PDX1, whereas the other cells were mainly hepatic cells. We found that when the activin A-induced hES cells were replated and seeded at low cell densities, the addition of RA induced significant pancreatic differentiation and over 70% of cells in culture expressed PDX1. When the endodermal cells were isolated with the surface marker CXCR4 from the activin A-induced culture and further differentiated with RA, a homogeneous PDX1(+) cell population (over 95% pure) was generated. The PDX1(+) cells could further differentiate into cells that expressed pancreatic transcription factors and pancreatic endocrine or exocrine markers. We also found that RA inhibited the hepatic differentiation of endodermal cells that were seeded at low cell densities, and this inhibition may have been through the inhibition of Smad1/5/8 activity. Thus, we present a highly efficient and reproducible protocol for generating PDX1(+) pancreatic progenitor cells from hES cells.
  Journal of Molecular Cell Biology 11/2009; 2(1):50-60.
• Article: Two supporting factors greatly improve the efficiency of human iPSC generation.

  Yang Zhao, Xiaolei Yin, Han Qin, Fangfang Zhu, Haisong Liu, Weifeng Yang, Qiang Zhang, Chengang Xiang, Pingping Hou, Zhihua Song, [......], Weiqi Zhang, Tingting Xiang, Yetao Wu, Yiding Zhao, Chun Liu, Chen Yu, Kehu Yuan, Jinning Lou, Mingxiao Ding, Hongkui Deng
  Cell stem cell 12/2008; 3(5):475-9. · 23.56 Impact Factor