Mechanisms Regulating Stemness and Differentiation in Embryonal Carcinoma Cells

Figure 4

General overview of ECCs differentiation and the metabolic transition associated with the loss of stemness. ECCs can be differentiated towards neuronal and extraembryonic endoderm in the presence of retinoic acid, or cardiomyocytes in the presence of DMSO. With the differentiation process, others and we have observed a metabolic transition from glycolytic metabolism towards oxidative phosphorylation. Moreover, we can induce F9 cell differentiation towards an extraembryonic lineage using dichloroacetate (DCA), a pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK) inhibitor, or oxamate, a lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) inhibitor, which would indicate that the metabolic status of a cell determines whether it will remain pluripotent or if it will differentiate towards a specific lineage.