Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, United States
Cleber Trujillo
Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, United States
Sanjay K Nigam
Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, United States; Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, United States
Terry Gaasterland
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Scripps Genome Center, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, United States
David Brafman
School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, United States
Karl Willert
Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, United States
The field of tissue engineering entered a new era with the development of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), which are capable of unlimited expansion whilst retaining the potential to differentiate into all mature cell populations. However, these cells harbor significant risks, including tumor formation upon transplantation. One way to mitigate this risk is to develop expandable progenitor cell populations with restricted differentiation potential. Here, we used a cellular microarray technology to identify a defined and optimized culture condition that supports the derivation and propagation of a cell population with mesodermal properties. This cell population, referred to as intermediate mesodermal progenitor (IMP) cells, is capable of unlimited expansion, lacks tumor formation potential, and, upon appropriate stimulation, readily acquires properties of a sub-population of kidney cells. Interestingly, IMP cells fail to differentiate into other mesodermally-derived tissues, including blood and heart, suggesting that these cells are restricted to an intermediate mesodermal fate.
