Mohamed H Elsafi Mabrouk, Roman Goetzke, Giulio Abagnale, Burcu Yesilyurt, Lucia Salz, Olivia Cypris, Philipp Glück, Sven Liesenfelder, Kira Zeevaert, Zhiyao Ma, Marcelo A S Toledo, Ronghui Li, Ivan G Costa, Angelika Lampert, Vivek Pachauri, Uwe Schnakenberg, Martin Zenke, Wolfgang Wagner
Colonies of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) reveal aspects of self-organization even under culture conditions that maintain pluripotency. To investigate the dynamics of this process under spatial confinement, we used either polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) pillars or micro-contact printing of vitronectin. There was a progressive upregulation of OCT4, E-cadherin, and NANOG within 70 μm from the outer rim of iPSC colonies. Single-cell RNA-sequencing and spatial reconstruction of gene expression demonstrated that OCT4high subsets, residing at the edge of the colony, have pronounced up-regulation of the TGF-β pathway, particularly of NODAL and its inhibitor LEFTY...
January 25, 2022: Biomaterials