Lingyu Li

Identification of ectodermal cells during early mouse embryonic development and EpiSC differentiaton

The ectoderm is one of the three germ layers in early mouse embryos. It has the capacity to develop into both epidermis and the central nervous system. Because there are no specific markers for this lineage, and because accessing this layer is difficult in early development, the ectoderm is under-studied in early embryonic mouse development. Embryonic stem (ES) cells and epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) are widely used as in vitro models to study mechanisms of early embryonic development, but direct evidence for the existence of the ectodermal cells during pluripotent stem cell differentiation is still lacking.

In my recent work, I have been able to culture ectodermal cells using EpiSC monolayer differentiation. These cells have the potential to differentiate into epidermal cells (with BMP4) or neural cells (without BMP4). Microarray and Q-PCR analysis on these cells showed some specific genes that were highly expressed in these ectodermal cells. I plan to compare in vivo and in vitro data to identify ectoderm-specific markers, and to study the mechanisms involved in commitment of these cells.