A reliable and efficient protocol for human pluripotent stem cell differentiation into the definitive endoderm based on dispersed single cells.

Differentiation of pluripotent cells into endoderm-related cell types initially requires in vitro gastrulation into the definitive endoderm (DE). Most differentiation protocols are initiated from colonies of pluripotent cells complicating their adaption due to insufficiently defined starting conditions. The protocol described here was initiated from a defined cell number of dispersed single cells and tested on three different human embryonic stem cell lines and one human induced pluripotent stem cell line. Combined activation of ActivinA/Nodal signaling and GSK3 inhibition for the first 24 h, followed by ActivinA/Nodal signaling efficiently induced the DE state. Activation of ActivinA/Nodal signaling alone was not effective. Efficient GSK3 inhibition allowed the reduction of the ActivinA concentration during the entire protocol. A feeder-independent cultivation of pluripotent cells was preferred to achieve the high efficiency and robustness since feeder cells hindered the differentiation process. Additionally, inhibition of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway was not required, nonetheless yielding high cell numbers efficiently committed toward the DE. Finally, the endoderm generated could be differentiated further into PDX1-positive pan-pancreatic cells and NGN3-positive endocrine progenitors. Thus, this efficient and robust DE differentiation protocol is a step forward toward better reproducibility due to the well-defined conditions based on dispersed single cells from feeder-free-cultivated human pluripotent cells.