The International Journal of Developmental Biology

Atlas of Human Experimental Teratomas

Edited by: Ivan Damjanov and Peter W. Andrews

Cover Legend

The teratoma essay has become the “gold standard” pluripotency test for stem cell lines. It involves the xenografting of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) into immunosuppressed mice in order to determine if they can produce teratomas containing derivatives of all the three embryonic germ layers. Xenografted hPSC may also recapitulate certain aspects of early embryonic development and form embryoid bodies and extra-embryonic tissues, such as yolk sac. In these cover images, we show representative differentiation patterns seen in human experimental teratomas. In the upper row, from the left, yolk sac elements, an embryoid body and several neural rosettes are shown. Below, examples of endoderm and mesoderm differentiation can be seen, together with a recipient immunosuppressed mouse. For more information, see article by Ivan Damjanov and Peter Andrews, pp. 337-419, in this issue. Mouse photo kindly reproduced with generous permission from the "Animal Resources Centre", Western Australia (www.arc.wa.gov.au).