Differentiation

Human intestinal organoids are endowed with immune cells by transplantation into humanized mice.

Many stem cells exhibit cell division coupled to differentiation, though the changes occurring between consecutive cell divisions have been difficult to study. Here they use synchronized hPSC culture to show that production of transcription factors and epigenetic changes are linked with cell division timing.

DNMT3B-dependent DNA methylation provides epigenetic priming at epiblast stage by methylating enhancers of ectodermal genes to ensure proper differentiation toward mesoendoderm tissues.

Notch signaling is crucial for pancreatic cell fate choice. With mathematical modeling and experiments, Xu et al. provides new insights into how different Notch ligands and Hes1 oscillation guide the spatial-temporal dynamics of cell differentiation.