Abstract
In order to determine the function of dHAND in a specific subset of cardiomyocyte progenitor cells responsible for the heart and its function in the cellular mechanism of Hand2-/- mouse ventricular hypoplasia, we established an allelic knockout model of dHAND in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs-H9) by an episomal vector-based CRISPR/Cas9 system. This dHAND KO hESC line maintained normal karyotype and typical primed pluripotent human stem cell morphology, and maintained pluripotency, could differentiate into all three germ layers in vivo.