Current Progress in Procine Embryonic Stem Cells

Abstract: Embryonic stem cells can be maintained indefinitely in vitro and yet maintain the competence to produce all the cells within a fetus. The well-accepted criteria for totipotency of embryonic stem cells inculde 1) differentiating into three germ layers in vitro; 2) teratoma formation ability; 3) germline transmission and/or tetraploid- complementation. Only mouse， rat and chicken embryonic stem cell lines could satisfy all the standards since Kaufman MH and Evans MJ derived the first mouse embryonic stem cell line in 1981. Pigs are widely used as drug experimental models because of the physiologically similarity with humans. Although the derivation of porcine embryonic stem cells are highly needed， no convincing embryonic stem cell lines have been produced in this species to date. In this review， we discuss the recent progress in this field， especially oriented on possible reasons and obstacles why establishment of porcine embryonic stem cell lines is still unsuccessful. The identification of appropriate stem cell markers， functional cytokine pathways， and key pluripotency-maintaining factors along with the accomplishment of porcine genomes， provide encouragement for establishment of porcine embryonic stem cell lines in the near future.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2010.05.0024