Derivation of functional trophoblast stem cells from primed human pluripotent stem cells

Local immune recognition of trophoblast in early human pregnancy: controversies and questions

“…Human trophoblast stem cell lines 157 , 158 and trophoblast organoids 159 , 160 can be induced to differentiate to SCT or invasive EVT and are powerful tools to study placental development and interaction with maternal cells. Several recent reports showing that human embryonic stem cells can be differentiated to trophoblast will enable the generation and study of trophoblast cells from individuals (either mother or child) who have had abnormal pregnancies 161 – 165 .…”

The product of BMP-directed differentiation protocols for human primed pluripotent stem cells is placental trophoblast and not amnion

“…In summary, this study demonstrates that BAP-treated primed PSCs remain a useful in vitro model to investigate the process of TB differentiation and early placental development without necessitating the creation of naïve-type PSCs as the initiating cell source. The accompanying manuscript by Soncin et al. (2022) of Stem Cell Reports provides further evidence that primed PSCs can be readily converted to TSCs.…”

Pluripotent cell states and unexpected fates

“…It is therefore somewhat surprising that many reports have confirmed that these archetypal hPSCs are able to give rise to amnion and primordial germ cells, since these are lineages thought to arise from the post-implantation epiblast very soon after implantation (review, Pera and Rossant, 2021 ). A cohort of recent publications, including two in this issue of Stem Cell Reports ( Soncin et al., 2022 ; Seetharam et al., 2022 ), raises further fascinating questions concerning the developmental potential of archetypal hPSCs.…”

“…The authors also noted similarities in gene expression between early trophoblast and amnion. Soncin et al (2022) use a modified BMP4-based protocol to produce trophoblast stem cells (TSCs) with properties very similar to those of TSCs derived directly from embryos, or from naive pluripotent stem cells. These TSCs could be differentiated into syncytiocytotrophoblast or extravillous trophoblast, and produced trophoblast tumors when engrafted into immuno-deprived animals.…”