Signal regulators of human naive pluripotency

Pluripotent cells transiently develop during pen-implantation embryogenesis and have the capacity to convert into three embryonic lineages. Two typical states of pluripotency, naive and primed, can be experimentally induced in vitro. The in vitro naive state can be stabilized in response to environmental inductive cues via a unique transcriptional regulatory program. However, interference with various signaling pathways creates a spectrum of alternative pluripotent cells that display different functions and molecular expression patterns. Similarly, human naive pluripotent cells can be placed into two main levels - intermediate and bona fide. Here, we discuss several culture conditions that have been used to establish naive-associated gene regulatory networks in human pluripotent cells. We also describe different transcriptional patterns in various culture systems that are associated with these two levels of human naive pluripotency.