Investigating Factors Influencing In Vitro Differentiation during Development Using Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells as a Biological System

Abstract

Mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells perpetuate in vitro developmental potential of creator cells of the blastocyst in the developing embryo. ES cells persistently selfrenew in in vitro culture while recreating embryogenesis impeccably differentiating as planned to generate all aspects of the developing fetus. The ES cell emanates stability homogeneity and immense differentiation potential. The study was based on a concept that physicochemical factors present in the environment might influence the differentiation potential of these incredible cells during embryogenesis. This thesis provides insights into differentiation ability of ES cells which are of great importance when it comes to future cellbased applications in regenerative medicine drug screening functional genomic applications and for studying early mammalian embryonic development. This study evaluated the reliability of ES cells cultured in vitro as a model system mirroring cells in the developing embryo upon exposure to physicochemical factors and examined their differentiation efficacy by analyzing the expression of key lineage markers to reveal the effect of growth environment on embryonic development. This work has thrown light on the genetic basis of physicochemical factors influencing lineage differentiation of ES cells during embryogenesis. newlineThe impact of exposure to chemical factors in the ES cells was evaluated initially on the basis of the validated in vitro embryonic stem cells test (EST). Further in the study gene expression analysis was carried out to not only make the EST easier but also have a wider applicability. The study explored current knowledge of the EST model in governing the influence of chemical compounds influencing lineage differentiation during embryogenesis. newline newline newline