Wnt signaling activation confers a syncytiotrophoblast progenitor state on trophoblast stem cells of cynomolgus monkey.

Trophoblast stem cells (TSCs), derived from the trophectoderm of the blastocyst, are used as an in vitro model to reveal the underlying mechanisms of placentation in the mammal. In humans, suitable culture conditions for TSC derivation have been recently discovered. The established human TSCs differentiate efficiently toward two trophoblast subtypes, i.e., syncytiotrophoblast (STB) and extravillous trophoblast. On the other hand, the differentiation efficiencies were lower in macaque TSCs compared to human TSCs. Here, we demonstrate that the activation of Wnt signaling induced trophoblastic lineage switching to STB progenitor state. macTSCs highly expressed STB progenitor markers and obtained forskolin responsiveness by CHIR99021 treatment. Overall design: Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for two macTSC lines cultured with/without CHIR99021 (duplication).