Generation of esophageal basal progeitor cells from human pluripotent stem cells

We established an efficient protocol to generate esophageal epithelial progenitors (EPCs) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). Inhibition of TGFß and BMP signaling is required for the differentiation of hPSCs into EPCs which can be further purified with EPCAM and Integrin ß4. These purified EPCs express human fetal esophageal genes and recapitulate the normal development of the stratified squamous epithelium. We performed global transcriptomic profiling of E12.5 mouse embryonic esophageal epithelia, human fetal esophageal epithelia and human embryonic stem cell RUES2-derived esophageal progenitor cells through RNA sequencing. We found that these cells shared similar expression of NOTCH components including Jag1 and 2, Dll1, 3 and 4, and Notct1, 3, 4. The gene expression profile allows to understand transcriptional program in mouse and human developing esophagus. Analysis of global transcriptomes of E12.5 mouse embryonic esophageal epithelia, human fetal esophageal epthelia and human embryonic stem cell RUES2-derived esophageal progenitor cells.