Pancreatic and Liver Endoderm Cells and Tissue by Differentiation of Definitive Endoderm Cells Obtained from Human Embryonic Stems

摘要

The invention relates to methods that allow for the efficient differentiation to form pancreatic endoderm cells from pluripotent stem cells such as human embryonic stem cells and definitive endoderm cells. The invention is directly applicable to the ultimate generation of pancreatic beta cells that could be used as part of a therapy to treat or even cure diabetes. Additionally, the present invention may be used to generate liver endoderm cells from human embryonic stem cells and definite endoderm cells as well. This invention relates to a method for generating definitive endoderm and pancreatic endoderm cells from stem cells, preferably human embryonic stem cells using defined media in the absence of feeder cells. A simply two step procedure to provide pancreatic endoderm cells from embryonic stem cells represents further embodiments of the present invention.