Zscan4 Promotes Genomic Stability during Reprogramming and Dramatically Improves the Quality of iPS Cells as Demonstrated by Tetraploid Complementation Scientists screened for factors that could decrease DNA damage response (DDR) signals during induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell induction. They determined that Zscan4, in combination with the Yamanaka factors, not only remarkably reduced the DDR but also markedly promoted the efficiency of iPS cell generation. [Cell Res] Full Article MicroRNA-302 Increases Reprogramming Efficiency via Repression of NR2F2 Researchers used global bioinformatics analysis of microRNA (miRNA) and mRNA microarrays to predict novel miRNA-mRNA interactions in human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. [Stem Cells] Abstract iPS Cell Modeling of Best Disease: Insights into the Pathophysiology of an Inherited Macular Degeneration Investigators employed human iPS cell technology to generate retinal pigment epithelium from Best disease patients and unaffected siblings in order to examine the cellular and molecular processes underlying this disease. [Hum Mol Genet] Abstract | Press Release Sodium Arsenite Exposure Inhibits AKT and Stat3 Activation, Suppresses Self-Renewal and Induces Apoptotic Death of Embryonic Stem Cells Data demonstrated suppression of self-renewal and induction of apoptosis in mouse embryonic stem cells by sodium arsenite exposure, which was further accelerated due to simultaneous inhibition of the protective PI3K-AKT and Stat3-dependent pathways. [Apoptosis] Abstract | Full Article Transforming Pluripotency: An Exon-Level Study of Malignancy-Specific Transcripts in Human Embryonal Carcinoma and Embryonic Stem Cells To circumvent difficulties of isolating pure populations of cancer stem cells for the purpose of identifying malignancy-specific gene expression, researchers compared exon-resolution transcriptomic profiles of five embryonal carcinoma cell lines, a histological subtype of germ cell tumor, to their non-malignant caricature, specifically six human embryonic stem cell lines. [Stem Cells Dev] Abstract Apoptosis-Related Gene Expression Profiles of Mouse ESCs and maGSCs: Role of Fgf4 and Mnda in Pluripotent Cell Responses to Genotoxicity Scientists analyzed the expression of apoptosis-related genes using OligoGEArray in undifferentiated multipotent adult germ-line stem cells (maGSCs) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and identified a similar set of genes expressed in both cell types. [PLoS One] Full Article The Plasminogen Activation System Modulates Differently Adipogenesis and Myogenesis of Embryonic Stem Cells Results showed that the plasminogen activation system is capable to specifically modulate adipogenesis and skeletal myogenesis of embryonic stem cells by successive different molecular mechanisms. [PLoS One] Full Article Shear Stress during Early Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation Promotes Hematopoietic and Endothelial Phenotypes Investigators applied laminar shear stress to differentiating embryonic stem cells using a 2D adherent parallel plate configuration to systematically investigate the effects of several mechanical parameters. [Biotechnol Bioeng] Abstract Tandem Affinity Purification in Transgenic Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Identifies DDOST as a Novel PPP1CC2 Interacting Protein To elucidate the function of the Ppp1cc gene researchers sought to identify novel protein-protein interactions. To this aim, they created SBP-3XFLAG-PPP1CC1 and SBP-3XFLAG-PPP1CC2 knock-in mouse embryonic stem cell lines using a gene trap based system. [Biochemistry] Abstract Ontogenic Development of Cardiomyocytes Derived from Transgene-Free Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells and Its Homology with Human Heart Researchers evaluated the developmental ontogeny of cardiomyocytes following induced differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells. [Life Sci] Abstract |