Induction of human trophoblast stem-like cells from primed pluripotent stem cells

Significance Treatment with bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) in human primed pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) for generating trophoblast lineage cells has sparked debate that the resulting cells are closer to amnion lineage cells rather than trophoblast. This study reports that trophoblast stem-like cells (TSLCs) can be generated from human primed PSCs by a short-term treatment of BMP4 without amnion lineage marker expression. In addition, we describe that TSLCs are self-renewing in long-term culture and bipotent as they can differentiate into functional extravillous trophoblasts and syncytiotrophoblasts. We propose an alternative method to generate an available model for studying human placental development from human primed PSCs.