Question

Using experimental data to discuss the influence of Wnt pathway components on pluripotency and differentiation in ES cells.

Answer 1

ES cells are derived from inner cell mass (ICM) of the mammalian blastocyst and represent a unique self renewing embryonic progenitor population that has been frozen in its pluripotent state ICM cells also pluripotent state but quickly lose this property by commiting to one of the three germ layers during gastrulation the ebility of the mouse ES cells to self renew has been attributed to the protien regularity network that includes the pluripotency factors NANOG OCT4 .

By contrast human ES cells differ significantly from mouse ES cells in their required culture conditions and contain lower levels of pluripotency KLF4 and REX1.

despite the vital role beta catenin in vertebrate axis sepcification mouse ES cell lines can be established in the absence of ct nnb1 indicating that beta catenin is essential of ES cell self renewal all though this result is suprising its possible that ES cell self renewal and axis formation control by different mechanisms