Abstract
Current EC differentiation protocols are inefficient, and the phenotypes of the differentiated ECs are only briefly stable, which significantly inhibits their utility for basic science research. Here, a remarkably more efficient hiPSC-EC differentiation protocol that incorporates a three-dimensional (3D) fibrin scaffold is presented. With this protocol, up to 45% of the differentiated hiPSCs assumed an EC phenotype, and after purification, greater than 95% of the cells displayed the EC phenotype (based on CD31 expression). The hiPSC-ECs continued to display EC characteristics for 4 weeks in vitro. Gene and protein expression levels of CD31, CD144 and von Willebrand factor-8 (vWF-8) were significantly up-regulated in differentiated hiPSC-ECs. hiPSC-ECs also have biological function to up-take Dil-conjugated acetylated LDL (Dil-ac-LDL) and form tubular structures on Matrigel. Collectively, these data demonstrate that a 3D differentiation protocol can efficiently generate ECs from hiPSCs and, furthermore, the differentiated hiPSC-ECs are functional and can maintain EC fate up to 4 weeks in vitro.