Progression in Formative Stem Cell

Embryonic stem cells can be divided into two states, naïve and primed, according to their pluripotency during developmental progression. In order to grasp the regulatory mechanism between two pluripotent states, such as transition, lineage differentiation, and epigenetic modification, AUSTIN proposed a hypothesis that there exists a novel intermediate state named as “formative”. Moreover, AUSTIN and WU successfully isolated pluripotent stem cells with formative characteristics from mouse and human embryos in his recent study. Compared with naïve and primed pluripotent cells, FSC (formative stem cell) have unique features of gene expression, derivation and developmental pluripotency in vivo. Here, this review will introduce the characteristics of formative stem cells and its recent progresses.