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Leukemia pp 317-334 | Cite as

In Vitro Differentiation of Embryonic Stem Cells as a Model of Early Hematopoietic Development

Protocol
First Online:
Part of the Methods in Molecular Biology™ book series (MIMB, volume 538)

Summary

Embryonic Stem (ES) are pluripotent cells derived from the inner cell mass of blastocysts. ES cells differentiate in vitro into all kind of cells and the development of endothelial and hematopoietic cells from mouse ES cells has been especially established. As such, the in vitro differentiation of ES cells provides a powerful experimental model to study and determine the role of specific genes in the development of the hematopoietic system. Using this approach we have demonstrated the critical function of the transcription factor AML1/Runx1 at the onset of hematopoietic development (Blood 100:458–466, 2002; Blood 103:886–889, 2004). In this chapter, we will describe our protocols and methods for the culture of healthy ES cells, their effective differentiation toward hematopoiesis, and the quantitative analysis of their hematopoietic potential by replating or gene expression analyses.

Key words

ES cells Hematopoietic development AML1/Runx1 In vitro differentiation Embryoid bodies Hemangioblast Transcription factor Gene expression 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Cancer Research UK.

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Copyright information

© Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Stem Cell Biology and Research, Paterson Institute for Cancer ResearchUniversity of ManchesterManchesterUK

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