Human primed and naive PSCs are equally potent in differentiating into bona fide trophoblast stem cells (RNA-Seq)

Cells of the trophoblast lineage constitute the major part of placental tissues in higher mammals. Recent derivation of human trophoblast stem cells (TSC) from placental cytotrophoblasts (CT) and from blastocyst opens new opportunities for studying development and function of human placenta. Here we report that inhibition of TGF pathway leads to direct and robust conversion of primed human pluripotent stem cells into TSC. The resulting cell lines exhibit self-renewal, are able to differentiate into the main trophoblast lineages, and present RNA and epigenetic profiles that are indistinguishable from the TSC lines derived from placenta or blastocyst. Furthermore, activation of YAP pathway is necessary and sufficient for this conversion. RNA-seq