Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep;32(5):623-633.
doi: 10.1111/pcmr.12779. Epub 2019 Mar 25.

Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived melanocyte precursor cells undergoing differentiation into melanocytes

Chieko Hosaka  1 , Makoto Kunisada  1 , Michiyo Koyanagi-Aoi  2   3   4   5 , Taro Masaki  1 , Chihiro Takemori  1 , Mariko Taniguchi-Ikeda  6 , Takashi Aoi  2   3   4 , Chikako Nishigori  1
Affiliations

Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived melanocyte precursor cells undergoing differentiation into melanocytes

Chieko Hosaka et al. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology offers a novel approach for conversion of human primary fibroblasts into melanocytes. During attempts to explore various protocols for differentiation of iPSCs into melanocytes, we found a distinct and self-renewing cell lineage that could differentiate into melanocytes, named as melanocyte precursor cells (MPCs). The MPCs exhibited a morphology distinctive from that of melanocytes, in lacking either the melanosomal structure or the melanocyte-specific marker genes MITF, TYR, and SOX10. In addition, gene expression studies in the MPCs showed high-level expression of WNT5A, ROR2, which are non-canonical WNT pathway markers, and its related receptor TGFβR2. In contrast, MPC differentiation into melanocytes was achieved by activating the canonical WNT pathway using the GSK3β inhibitor. Our data demonstrated the distinct characteristic of MPCs' ability to differentiate into melanocytes, and the underlying mechanism of interfacing between canonical WNT signaling pathway and non-canonical WNT signaling pathway.

Keywords: WNT signaling; differentiation; human primary melanocytes; induced pluripotent stem cells; melanocyte precursor cells.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Cotsarelis, G., Sun, T. T., & Lavker, R. M. (1990). Label-retaining cells reside in the bulge area of pilosebaceous unit: Implications for follicular stem cells, hair cycle, and skin carcinogenesis. Cell, 61, 1329-1337. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(90)90696-C
    1. Dorsky, R. I., Moon, R. T., & Raible, D. W. (1998). Control of neural crest cell fate by the Wnt signalling pathway. Nature, 396, 370-373. https://doi.org/10.1038/24620
    1. Dutton, K. A., Pauliny, A., Lopes, S. S., Elworthy, S., Carney, T. J., Rauch, J., … Kelsh, R. N. (2001). Zebrafish colourless encodes sox10 and specifies non-ectomesenchymal neural crest fates. Development, 128, 4113-4125.
    1. Eisinger, M., & Marko, O. (1982). Selective proliferation of normal human melanocytes in vitro in the presence of phorbol ester and cholera toxin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 79, 2018-2022. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.79.6.2018
    1. Ezzedine, K., Eleftheriadou, V., Whitton, M., & Van Geel, N. (2015). Vitiligo. Lancet, 386, 74-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60763-7

Publication types

MeSH terms

Associated data