Reconstructing aspects of human embryogenesis with pluripotent stem cells

1Human life starts at fertilisation with the union of the sperm and the egg to form the zygote. This unique totipotent cell undergoes continuous cleavage divisions without any increase in size, resulting in a sphere known as the morula four days after fertilisation. Further division and cell differentiation results in a hollowed structure known as the blastocyst on the fifth day of development (Fig. 1A). By the blastocyst stage, two main groups of cells become defined: the inner cell mass (ICM), which will form the embryo proper and the first extra-embryonic tissue, the trophectoderm (TE), an epithelium that gives rise to the cells of the placenta. Just before embryo implantation on the sixth day, the inner cell mass starts to differentiate into the epiblast (EPI) and hypoblast (HYPO), which will give rise to all embryonic cells and the extra-embryonic yolk-sac, respectively,. Following implantation, the EPI undergoes a series of morphological changes leading to the formation of a 3-dimensional (3D) rosette, which then forms a flattened disc-shaped structure that will initiate gastrulation on day fourteen.

2Naturally, the development of the human embryo occurs within the body of the mother, making it hard to study. Although recent in vitro culture methods have advanced our abilities to study aspects of human embryo development ex-utero–, surplus human embryos donated to research are rare and their use is subject to considerable ethical and legal restrictions. Due to these reasons, knowledge of the critical developmental steps allowing formation of the blastocyst stage embryo and its subsequent remodelling at early post-implantation remain largely unknown. Thus, the generation of several stem cell-derived models that recapitulate unique stages of mouse– and human embryo– development in vitro have been invaluable.

3Here, with these considerations in mind, we test the hypothesis that human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) under certain conditions could undergo self-organisation into 3D embryo-like structures. Recent studies showed that PSCs can be reprogrammed to a molecular state, termed extended or expanded pluripotency (EP), that has developmental potency for both embryonic and extra-embryonic cell lineages–. We have therefore asked whether hPSCs that are grown under EP conditions (termed hEPSCs) and cultured with a combination of appropriate growth factors and/or inhibitors can capture aspects of early embryonic lineage development in 3D culture. We show that the resulting structures recapitulate some of the morphological and gene expression features of embryonic days 3 to day 9/10 of natural human embryogenesis with limited developmental potential. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) further confirms that these structures recapitulate some aspects of blastocyst gene expression, with notable divergences. We anticipate that the future applications of this system can give insight into regulatory processes of cellular differentiation in human embryo development whilst also highlighting ongoing challenges both in specifically understanding the multi-potency state of EPSCs and broadly modelling human embryogenesis in vitro.

4We first converted hPSCs to hEPSCs through a minimum of 5 passages (Materials and Methods). The resulting cells acquired some morphological features characteristic of pluripotent cells in the naïve state of pluripotency, including dome-shaped colony formation, as supported by earlier observations (Fig. 1B). However, we could also observe flat cell colonies, a morphological feature characteristic of pluripotent cells in the primed state, present in different ratios after each passage, suggesting the presence of a mixed population of cells in different pluripotent states under EP culture conditions (Figure S1A). Using a multi-inverted-pyramidal microwell-based 3D culture system that we previously described to facilitate self-organisation of mouse embryonic and extra-embryonic stem cells,,, we seeded small numbers of hEPSCs (5-6 cells per microwell) to enable their aggregation and subsequent self-organisation (Fig. 1C). We first observed that the in vitro culture media normally used for the culture of natural human pre-implantation embryos promoted the formation of cavitated cystic structures (Figure S1B, see Methods). Aiming to support the maintenance of pluripotency and to promote TE-like differentiation, we mixed 2 parts of this medium with 1 part of EP and 1 part of hTSC, two different stem cell base media (without the addition of any growth factors or inhibitors, see Materials and Methods). We observed that conditions of low oxygen tension (5% O2, similar to our previous conditions for mouse blastoid formation and for the development of natural human blastocysts) facilitated the formation of cavitated structures (Figure S1C).

5We next screened various growth factors, cytokines, and small molecules at widely adopted concentrations, as previously published, and to identify conditions facilitating cavity and early lineage formation in these structures (Figure S2A–E). We found that a combination of BMP4 (20 ng/ml), the WNT agonist CHIR99021 (2 µM), FGF2 (40 ng/ml), and ROCK inhibitor Y-27632 (5 µM) during the first 48 h of 3D culture enhanced cell survival and promoted formation of compact cellular aggregates (Figure S2A–F). Additionally, we pulsed the cells with the ALK5 kinase inhibitor A83-01 (2 µM) to promote TE differentiation for the first 48 h of 3D culture, and removed this inhibitor after this time to avoid a complete loss in pluripotency. Concomitantly, the concentration of FGF2 was decreased by half (20 ng/ml) for the same purpose. Using this optimized condition, we observed the emergence of cavitated structures, 3 to 4 days after cell seeding (Fig. 1D). By day 6 of 3D culture, the structures exhibited a blastocyst-like morphology, forming a cohesive single outside layer, with an enlarged cavity, and an internal acentric compartment (Fig. 1E), of which 7.2% expressed the markers of the three blastocyst lineages, as judged by immunofluorescence analysis of selected markers (Fig. 1F–H). The average cell number and diameter of these hEP-structures were comparable to those of human blastocysts (Fig. 1I, J).

6The first lineage segregation event begins with compaction and cell polarisation in the mouse embryo at the 8-cell stage. Only recently have studies begun to shed light on these events in human embryogenesis,. Hence, we utilised our platform to analyse the establishment and dynamics of cell polarisation at the early timepoints of multicellular aggregate formation. We observed the assembly of intercellular junctions, characterised by basolateral localization of E-CADHERIN (Fig. 2A). At the apical surface, we found distinct enrichment of F-ACTIN and PARD6 within the first 48 h of cell aggregation (Fig. 2A), indicative of cell polarisation in hEP-structures. Next, we analysed spatiotemporal expression of the transcription factor GATA3, as a marker of TE specification in human embryogenesis. GATA3 was present in the nucleus within both polarised and non-polarised cells at day 2 and day 3 of 3D culture, although its intensity was significantly higher in polarised cells showing apical enrichment of PARD6 (Fig. 2A, B). These findings correlate with observations on natural human embryos at the morula stage (Fig. 2C).

7We have recently shown that the PLC-Protein Kinase C (PKC) pathway controls cellular polarisation at early stages of mouse embryo development. We, therefore, treated our hEPSC 3D cultures with 2 μM and 3 μM of the PLC inhibitor, U73122. PLC inhibition resulted in a reduction of the nuclear GATA3 signal intensity (Fig. 2D, E, S3A), which correlated with a decrease in the apical enrichment of PARD6 (Fig. 2D, E, S3B). To confirm the relationship between polarisation and outer cell commitment, we next used siRNA transfection to knockdown (KD) PLCB1 in order to deplete PLC activity in cells during 3D aggregation (Fig. 2F). The depletion of PLC activity was confirmed by qRT-PCR that RNAi depletion of PLCB1 was effective (Figure S3C). In agreement with the previous data, we found a significant reduction in both PARD6 and GATA3 expression in hEPSC aggregates at day 3 (Fig. 2F). Thus, our results may suggest a role for the acquisition of apicobasal polarity in promoting the expression and nuclear localisation of GATA3 to drive TE specification during development of hEP-structures.

8We next sought to investigate the formation of the blastocyst lineages upon cavitation of hEP-structures from day 4 onwards. We first used qRT-PCR to examine the expression level of core factors involved in establishing human blastocyst-like lineage identity (Fig. 3A). This analysis revealed that genes involved in TE specification, including PLAC8, CDX2, KRT8, and KRT18, were induced upon formation of cystic structures although GATA3 showed only a marginal increase compared to other molecular determinants of TE identity (Fig. 3A). As expected, crucial transcription factors required for pluripotent EPI specification, including NANOG and POU5F1, showed similar levels of expression in cystic structures as in hEPSCs cultured in 2D, whereas KLF4 was significantly upregulated in the cystic structures (Fig. 3A). Finally, we found that the expression of the core HYPO lineage determinant genes, PDGFRA and GATA6, were highly enriched in cystic structures although SOX17 did not follow this trend (Fig. 3A).

9In order to confirm these results spatially and on a protein level, we performed immunofluorescence analysis with some well-known lineage markers. In accordance with the findings from qRT-PCR, we observed enrichment for KRT18 in the outside, and expression of OCT4/SOX17 in the inner compartment (Fig. 3B). We further observed specification of the inner compartment with a second set of markers, SOX2/FOXA2 (Fig. 3C). At day 4, some structures displayed constitutive expression of GATA3 in the outer cell layer while maintaining expression of the hPSC/EPI marker OCT4 (10/23 structures scored) (Fig. 3D). At later time-points in culture (Day 6, see Materials and Methods), some structures maintained GATA3 expression in the outside layer, although this enrichment became mostly cytosolic rather than nuclear (53/135 structures scored) (Fig. 3E). These late-timepoint structures also showed poor expression of E-CADHERIN at day 6 (Fig. 3E). This result likely indicates a deficiency in junction assembly during the late cavitation process and may explain the compromised expression of some TE-specific markers as in vitro development progresses.

10It has been suggested that WNT3A supplementation promotes the cavitation and thus TE-like lineage identity in in vitro mouse blastoid formation, which correlates with canonical WNT expression in the TE lineage during mouse blastocyst development. When we tested this possibility, we found that addition of WNT3A to the culture media did not make any significant difference to the yield of cavitated structures at day 6 (Fig. 3F). This suggests that WNT3A may function differently in human development than in mouse, supporting previous claims,.

11We next tested the developmental capacity of these hEP-structures to develop beyond implantation stages by culturing them in our previously established human embryo in vitro culture (IVC) platform (Fig. 4A). Within 24 h in IVC, the EP-structures reorganised into post-implantation-like morphology, 60% of which had a SOX2 positive EPI-like inner compartment surrounded by a KRT18 and GATA3 positive extra-embryonic-like compartment (Fig. 4B–D) with some structures also specifying a few FOXA2-expressing cells suggesting a HYPO-like specification (Fig. 4C). Significantly, we found that within 24 h in IVC, SOX2 positive cells in the EPI-like inner compartment became radially organised around a small central lumen (Fig. 4D). The formation of a small lumen was confirmed by PODXL expression (Fig. 4E). This indicates that hEP-structures are able to undertake some cellular rearrangements characteristic of early post-implantation human morphogenesis–.

12Finally, in order to further characterize the transcriptional programs of our hEP-structures, we performed scRNA-seq on hEPSCs grown in 2D (prior to 3D aggregation), hEP-structures at day 5, hEP-structures grown in IVC for 24 h, and natural human blastocysts at day 5/6. Cells clustered predominantly based on sample identity (Fig. 5A, B). We assigned a lineage score based on a list of well-defined lineage markers (Supplementary Data 1) and we observed signatures of EPI-Like Cells (ELCs), TE-Like Cells (TLCs) and HYPO-Like Cells (HLCs). However, these lineages fail to cluster in UMAP space. This analysis revealed that the hEP-structures were composed of a large portion of undefined cells (Fig. 5C), similar to two other 3D models of the human blastocyst,. In addition, we also found that there was an overrepresentation of HLCs compared to HYPO cells in the natural blastocyst (Fig. 5B, C). The hEPSCs grown in 2D showed high expression of pluripotency markers such as TDGF1, NODAL, and POU5F1, as expected (Figure S4A) but there was considerable heterogeneity between cells. In day 5 hEP-structures we found a small subpopulation of GATA3-positive cells, which clustered close to the TE cluster of the natural embryo (Fig. 5D). This subcluster also expressed several amnion markers, such as ISL1, suggesting that it may share properties with the amnion rather than TE as has been reported in iBlastoids derived from reprogrammed hiPSCs (Fig. 5D). Overall, while we do see expression of some key markers in our ELCs, HLCs and TLCs (Fig. 5E), there was a disproportionate representation of lineages in our hEP-structures as seen by the overrepresentation of HYPO-specific markers, with relatively little expression of TE-specific markers.

13To better understand how the hEP-structures compared to natural human blastocysts at day 6, we compared the expression patterns of the key marker genes used to define the ELC, HLC and TLC signatures (Fig. 5F, S5A–C, see Supplementary Data 2). This revealed that over half of the genes (52/96 at day 5, 50/96 at day 6) did not differ between ELCs and the human EPI, and a similar number of genes were expressed at comparable levels between the HLCs and HYPO (52/96 and 53/96). Interestingly, of those genes upregulated in HLCs compared to the HYPO, several were extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins including COL4A1, COL18A1, and FN1. Importantly, these ECM genes were aberrantly expressed in ELCs and TLCs as well (Figure S5D). In the TLCs, there was an observable shift between day 5 and day 6 in this signature where 43/96 genes were expressed at a similar level to the blastocyst TE at day 5, which decreased to 25/96 at day 6 (Fig. 5F, S5C, see Supplementary Data 2). In order to take a more global view of the differences between the hEP-structures and the natural blastocysts, we performed an unbiased comparative analysis of gene programs. This aims to identify clusters of cells which may upregulate blocks of gene programs. This revealed several gene programs upregulated in either the hEP-structures or natural blastocysts. These included ECM genes COL3A1, COL4A2, COL4A1, COL1A1, COL6A3, and FN1. Additionally, some genes purportedly related to the amnion—though also expressed in the TE—such as POSTN and TPM1 were enriched in hEP-structures (Figure S6A). These hEP-structures and natural blastocyst enriched genes were subjected to a simple gene set enrichment analysis using Reactome gene sets broadly related to signalling activities. This revealed an enrichment of several terms, including those related to PDGF, Interleukin, VEGF, PI3K, STAT3, and WNT signalling for the hEP-structures (Figure S6B).

14Taken together, we conclude that although the transcriptional machinery for blastocyst lineage programming appears to be initiated at some level in hEP-structures in our protocol, a continuum of cell fates then develops, indicating that complete trans-differentiation is not attained.

15The restricted specification of the TE-like lineage and potential questions regarding the differentiation of TE versus amnion fate in these structures generated solely from hEPSCs led us to question whether these cells possess the capacity to generate the TE-like lineage. We were recently able to correct a similar shortcoming in mouse blastoids by combining EPSCs with mouse trophoblast stem cells (TSCs). As a recent study has shown it is possible to derive human TSCs from first trimester human placental samples and blastocysts, we asked whether such TSCs could participate alongside hEPSCs in the assembly of human blastoids (Figure S7A). To this end, we first allowed hEPSCs to aggregate for 24 h after which we added hTSCs. The first 24 h of hEPSC aggregation demonstrated the increased potential to generate both embryonic EPI-like and extra-embryonic HYPO-like lineages in the EP condition compared to the Rset condition that has been shown to promote naïve pluripotency (Figure S7B). Within 4 days of co-culture, we observed the formation of cystic structures having internal acentric hEPSC compartments. We also observed robust expression of some of the blastocyst lineage markers, including GATA3, SOX2, and SOX17 (Figure S7C). Nevertheless, it appeared that these structures struggled to form a cohesive TE-like epithelium and displayed not one but multiple cavities (Figure S7C). Thus, in contrast to our experience with mouse TSCs, this human TSC line appears unable to rescue the shortcomings of human ESPCs to generate the TE lineage. Thus, future work will be required to generate human TSC lines having the ability to recapitulate pre-implantation development in order to enhance this system further.

16Cultured pluripotent stem cells show a dynamic spectrum of pluripotency states, reflecting stages in pre-to-post-implantation development in vivo, principally the transition from the naïve to the primed state–. This dynamic spectrum of pluripotency states exhibits distinct molecular and functional properties that affect the differentiation potential of cells and their ability to contribute to chimera formation,. Previous reports have demonstrated the ability of mouse and human EPSCs to contribute to chimeras and show integration into both embryonic and extra-embryonic parts, a property not seen with other PSCs,. Thus, in the current study, we aimed to leverage this reported bi-potency of hEPSCs by developing a strategy enabling us to reconstitute the spatiotemporal lineage differentiation and self-organisation of human early development. We assessed the multi-differentiation potential of hEPSCs to model early embryonic cell fate in a 3D culture platform. The results we present show that the hEPSC-based system we have established here allows hEPSCs to self-organize into structures that bear some resemblance to human blastocysts and peri-implantation stage embryos in morphology and, to a certain extent, also in lineage specification. However, we also show that their cell-lineage composition is imperfect, and these cells mainly adopt an intermediate transcriptional state.

17Our knowledge of how to capture stem cell pluripotency in vitro is rapidly evolving and recent reports have challenged the previously proposed bi-potency of EPSCs,. Consistent with these reports, our previous study suggested that mouse EPSCs could not generate TE-like progeny in mouse blastoids, at least in our hands. It has recently been reported that both mouse and human EPSCs are more similar to early post-implantation EPI cells and that the differentiation of pluripotent cells in either the naive or primed state may proceed toward different fate trajectories, suggesting that cells in different states might respond differently to stimuli,,. Consistent with these observations, we find that hEPSCs mainly express genes that are specific to the late stage epiblast. We also observe that hEPSCs can adopt different morphologies under routine culture with some cells displaying features characteristic of pluripotent cells in the naïve state and others in the primed state, in different ratios after each passage. This possibly reflects the range of developmental potencies associated with the hEPSCs we demonstrate here. However, while cells of the structures developing in our study display many EPI-like and HYPO-like markers and some TE-like markers, a full range of lineage markers is not expressed, and many of these markers are expressed at levels different from the bone fide blastocyst lineages. This is in line with recent findings emphasizing the restricted potency of mouse EPSCs. Together, our results suggest important limitations in the molecular and epigenetic plasticity of hEPSC-derived structures leading to weak activation of important genes such as GATA3, SOX2, and SOX17 resulting in inefficient lineage specification.

18In our study to generate mouse blastoids, we had been able to correct some of the deficiencies of mouse EPSCs by co-culturing them with TSCs. However, our attempts using a human TSC-line were not similarly encouraging. Given that these hTSCs are reported to be most similar to villous cytotrophoblasts, it is likely that these hTSCs may be more conducive to post- rather than pre-implantation development.

19Recently alternative methods to generate human blastocyst-like structures have been described using naïve or induced pluripotent human stem cells,,. In these reports, the resulting structures recapitulate the overall morphology of the blastocyst, with an inner cell mass and blastocoel cavity, similar to the structures presented here. Formation of structures with proper architecture, with a cavity and inner cell mass, ranges from 9.4 to 12.8% for human naïve blastocyst-like structures and 5.8–18% for structures generated from iPSCs. Additionally, the relationship between the efficiency for generation of proper structure morphology and correct segregation of all three lineages remains unclear and several gene programs do not appear to be shared between these models. While iPSC-derived blastoids seem to have the morphological and transcriptional organization, questions have been raised regarding the identity of their TE-like cells, as they appeared more similar to reported amnion-like cells. This finding, in combination with our own, raises interesting disconnects between promising morphologies and cell behaviours in stem cell-derived models of human embryogenesis and transcriptional cell identities. This work also shows the ability to generate morphologically similar structures with drastically different gene expression patterns, highlighting the uncoupling of morphology and gene expression in these models. These are yet to be explored and overcome in future work and emphasizes the need for stringent and comprehensive analyses to better understand the functionality of these models. Nevertheless, these recent studies, together with our own, will inform efforts to enhance the efficiency of both correct morphogenesis and robust lineage segregation in human embryo models.

20In summary, our findings demonstrate that hEPSCs are not the equivalent of totipotent blastomeres and they are only partially able to specify embryonic cell progeny. This may reflect distinct molecular trajectories and an intermediate state adopted by these cells that lead to the generation of the improperly differentiated cells observed in this study. Nevertheless, these cells are able to generate multicellular structures showing some of the key morphological features and aspects of patterning similar to natural early human embryos. Thus, the system we present here may offer an alternative route with the potential to be harnessed into a fully functional embryo-like platform in vitro. We anticipate that, despite these shortcomings, this system together with others recently described, has the potential to lead to a variety of future applications that will be pivotal in unravelling many of the enigmas of human developmental regulation.

21No statistical methods were used to predetermine sample size. The experiments were not randomized and the investigators were not blinded to allocation during experiments and outcome assessment.

22Stem cell-derived multicellular structures described in this study show no evidence of germ line patterning, thus they do not have human organismal form or potential. Additionally, all experiments were terminated by no later than day 8 in vitro. Our research was subject to review and approval from the Human Embryo and Stem Cell (HESC) Committee of California Institute of Technology, in compliance with the ISSCR 2016 guidelines. The human embryo work at California Institute of Technology was approved by the California Institute of Technology Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (Institutional Review Board number 19-0948). Funding was obtained through Open Philanthropy Project fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Human embryos at the blastocyst stage were obtained from the University of Southern California (USC) through the preexisting USC Institutional Review Board-approved Biospecimen Repository for Reproductive Research (HS-15-00859) after appropriate approval was obtained unanimously from the Biorepository Ethics Committee.

23The human embryos at the blastocyst stage were warmed using Embryo Thaw Media Kit following the manufacturer’s instructions (Fujifilm Irvine Scientific, Cat. No. 90124). The day before warming, Continuous Single Culture-NX Complete medium (Fujifilm Irvine Scientific, Catalog No: 90168) was equilibrated overnight at 37 °C + 5% CO2. On the day of warming (day 1), the straw that contains the embryo was defrosted at room temperature for 30 s and immersed in prewarmed (37 °C) water for 1 min until ice melted. The embryo was then transferred into T-1 (5 min), T-2 (5 min), T-3 (10 min) solutions for slow warming and finally into Multipurpose Handling Medium (MHM, Fujifilm Irvine Scientific, Cat. No. 90163) for recovery. All these incubation steps were done using 4 well plates (Nunc) and 1 ml per solution. Warmed embryos were finally incubated in drops of preequilibrated Continuous Single Culture-NX Complete medium under mineral oil (9305, Irvine Scientific). Culture conditions are the following: 37 °C 21% O2 and 5% CO2. Embryos were incubated for a total of 24 h until used for further RNA-sequencing protocols.

24The hPSC lines utilized in this study include: RUES2-GLR (kindly provided by Ali Brivanlou, The Rockefeller University, US), and ESI017 (kindly provided by Michael Elowitz, California Institute of Technology, US). Human TSCs (TSCT) were kindly provided by Hiroaki Okae and Takahiro Arima (Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan). Each of these cell lines was tested negative for mycoplasma contamination, which was monitored on a bi-monthly basis (MycoScope™ PCR Mycoplasma Detection Kit, Genlantis).

25All hEPSC lines were maintained under 20% O2 and 5% CO2 at 37 °C conditions on irradiated CF1 mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) feeder cells. hEPSCs were grown using ‘human Expanded Potential’ (hEP) medium consisting of DMEM/F12 (Thermo Fisher Scientific, 11320-033), Neurobasal-A (Thermo Fisher Scientific, 21103-049), N2 supplement (Thermo Fisher Scientific, 17502-048), B27 supplement (Thermo Fisher Scientific, 12587-010), 1% GlutaMAX (Thermo Fisher Scientific, 35050-061), 1% nonessential amino acids (Thermo Fisher Scientific, 11140-050), 0.1 mM b-mercaptoethanol (Thermo Fisher Scientific, 31350-010), penicillin-streptomycin (Thermo FisherScientific, 15140–122) and 5% knockout serum replacement (KSR, Thermo Fisher Scientific, A3181502). LCDMYI supplementation was added as indicated at the following concentrations: 10 ng ml−1 recombinant human LIF (L, 10 ng ml−1; Peprotech, 300-05), CHIR99021 (C, 1 mM; Stem Cell Technologies), (S)-( +)-Dimethindenemaleate (D, 1 mM; Tocris, 1425) and Minocycline hydrochloride (M, 2 mM; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, sc-203339), 1. All hEPSCs were used before reaching P70 and cell cultures were examined by eye to monitor for spontaneous differentiation of colonies into mesenchymal-like cells.

26hTSCs were cultured on 6-well plates pre-coated with 5 mg/ml Col IV at 37 C for at least one hour, as previously described in Okae et al.. Cells were grown in ‘human Trophoblast stem cell’ (hTS) medium consisting of DMEM/F12 supplemented with 0.1 mM b-mercaptoethanol, 0.2% FBS, 0.5% Penicillin-Streptomycin, 0.3% BSA (A8806-5G, Sigma-Aldrich), 1% ITS-X supplement (51500-056, Thermo Fisher Scientific), 1.5 mg/ml L-ascorbic acid (A4403, Sigma-Aldrich), 50 ng/ml EGF (62253-63-8, Sigma-Aldrich), 2 mM CHIR99021, 0.5 mM, A83-01 (72024, Stemcell Technologies), 1 mM SB431542 (Stem Cell Technologies), 0.8 mM VPA (Sigma-Aldrich) and 5 mM Y27632

27AggreWell 400 format plates were prepared following the manufacturer’s protocol. Briefly, wells were rinsed with the rinsing solution (Stem Cell Technologies), centrifuged for 5 min at 2000g and incubated at room temperature in the tissue culture hood for 20 min. The wells were then washed with 2 ml of 1× PBS. After PBS removal, 500 ml of final culture medium (IVF-hEP-hTS, see below) was added to each well and the plate placed at 37 C and 5% CO2 until ready to use.

28To begin, hEPSCs were dissociated to single cells by incubation with Accutase (07920, Stem Cell Technologies) at 37 °C for 3 min. Cells were collected and pelleted by centrifugation for 4 min at 300 g and resuspended in hEP-LCDMYI medium (described above). This cell suspension was pre-incubated at 37 °C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2 on gelatinized tissue-culture-grade plates for 30 min to remove inactive MEFs.

29Post incubation on gelatin plates, cells were counted using a haemocytometer and a total of 7200 hEPSCs was added to 1 mL of media composed of 50% IVF media (Continuous Single Culture-NX Complete (CSCM-NXC)) (90168, FUJIFILM), 25% hEP media, and 25% hTS media. This media was also supplemented with CHIR99021 (2uM), Y27632 (5uM), BMP4 (20 ng/mL), FGF2 (40 ng/mL), and A83-01 (2uM). Cell suspensions were added dropwise to the Aggrewells. All wells without cells were filled with 1 mL PBS to humidify the local atmosphere to minimize evaporation. The AggreWell plate (24-well, 1200 Aggrewell format) was then centrifuged for 3 min at 100 g, and placed at 37 °C under hypoxic conditions (5% CO2 and 5% O2). After 48 h, media was removed from wells and replaced with fresh culture media as described above, although FGF2 concentration was lowered to 20 ng/mL and A83-01 was omitted. Cells were left to grow for an additional 48-72 h until proper morphology was observed, at which point structures were fixed for immunostaining or transferred to IVC media (see below) for mimicking development beyond implantation stages.

30Following completion of any given aggregation experiment (from day 4 to 6), all cystic structures those clearly displaying a cavity were included in further analyses. Non-cavitated structures were excluded from downstream analyses.

31To perform two-step aggregation experiments, hEPSCs were first seeded as described above hEP-LCDMYI media. After a 24 h period of aggregation, hTSC colonies were dissociated to single cells, and counted using a haemocytometer. For aggregation experiments, 50% hEP media and 50% hTS media is used as described above. A total of 16,800 hTSCs were added per well (24-well, 1200 Aggrewell format) and the plate was placed at 37 °C, 5% CO2 and 5% O2.

32To prepare plate for in vitro culture, 150 µL of modified IVC1 (mIVC1) media was added to each well of a 96-well ultra-low attachment U-shaped plate (7007, Costar). mIVC1 media consisted of the following: Advanced DMEM/F12 (12634-010; Thermo Fischer Scientific; Waltham, US) supplemented with 20% (vol/vol) heat-inactivated FBS (16141079, Thermo Fisher Scientific), 2 mM GlutaMAX, penicillin (25 units/ml)/Streptomycin (25 μg/ml), 1X ITS-X (10 mg/L insulin, 5.5 mg/L transferrin, 0.0067 mg/L sodium selenite, 2 mg/L etholamine; 51500-056; Thermo Fisher Scientific; Waltham, US), 8 nM β-estradiol (E8875; Sigma-Aldrich; St. Louis, US), 200 ng/ml progesterone (P0130; Sigma-Aldrich; St. Louis, US), 25 μM N-acetyl-L-cysteine (A7250; Sigma-Aldrich; St. Louis, US), 17 nm IGF1, 20 ng/mL FGF2 (Gibco), FGF4 (25 ng/mL; R&D Systems, 5846-F4) and heparin (1 mg ml-1; Sigma, H3149).

33Stem cell-derived structures were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde (Electron Microscopy Sciences, 15710) for 20 min at room temperature, and then washed twice in PBT [phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) plus 0.05% Tween-20]. Structures were permeabilized for 30 min at room temperature in PBS containing 0.3% Triton-X-100 and 0.1% glycine. Primary antibody incubation was performed overnight at 4 °C in blocking buffer [PBS containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), 1% Tween-20]. The following day, embryos were washed twice in PBT, then incubated overnight at 4 °C with secondary antibody (1:500) in blocking buffer. Structures were washed twice in PBT buffer and then transferred to PBT drops in oil-filled optical plates before confocal imaging. The antibodies used are given in Supplementary Table 1.

34For human embryo images shown in Fig. 2e, embryos were fixed in IVIRMA Valencia, washed twice in a PBS solution containing 0.1% Tween-20 (Sigma, cat. no. P9416) and immediately placed into a 0.5 ml PCR tube within an oil-PBS-oil interphase. Tubes were stored at 4 °C were shipped to the University of Cambridge for immunofluorescence.

35Fluorescence images were acquired with an inverted Leica SP8 confocal microscope (Leica Microsystems), using a Leica Fluotar VISIR 0.95 NA 25x objective. Fluorophores were excited with a 405-nm diode laser (DAPI), a 488-nm argon laser (GFP), a 543-nm HeNe laser (Alexa Fluor-543/555) and a 633-nm HeNe laser (Alexa Fluor-633/647). Images were acquired with 0.5–1.2 mm z-separation. Raw data were processed using open-source image analysis software Fiji Image J (version: 2.0.1) open access software and assembled in Photoshop CC 2019 (Adobe). Digital quantifications and immunofluorescence signal intensity graphs were obtained using Fiji software.

36Apical enrichment analysis: F-actin and PARD6 polarisation were measured in a single focal plane, by taking the middle plane of the aggregate. A freehand line of the width of 0.5μm was drawn along the cell-contact free surface (apical domain), or cell-contact (basal) area of the cell, signal intensity was obtained via the Region of Interest (ROI) function of Fiji. The apical/basal signal intensity ratio is calculated as: I(apical)/I(basal). A cell is defined as polarised when the ratio between the apical membrane and the cytoplasm signal intensity exceeds 1.5.

37GATA3 expression analysis: the nucleus of each cells is masked using the Region of Interest (ROI) tool of Fiji. The average signal intensity of the ROI is calculated and a cell is defined as GATA3 positive when the nucleus to cytoplasm signal intensity exceeds 1.5.

38Transfections of siRNA were performed using Lipofectamine RNAi MAX (13778075, Thermo Fisher Scientific) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Upon seeding hEPSCs into AggreWells (as described above), Lipofectamine and siRNA (Qiagen, Hs_PLCB1_4, SI00115521; Qiagen, Hs_PLCB1_6, SI02781184; Qiagen, negative control siRNA, 1022076) against target genes with Opti-MEM (31985070, Gibco) is mixed and the mixture of either control siRNA or PLCB1 siRNA were evenly added into each well. Cell aggregates at 48 h were collected to analyse the gene expression by qRT-PCR.

39Total RNA was extracted with using Arcturus PicoPure™ RNA Isolation Kit (12204-01, Applied Biosystems) as per manufacturer’s instructions. QRT-PCR was performed with the Power SYBR Green RNA-to-CT 1-Step Kit (Life Technologies) and a Step One Plus Real-time PCR machine (Applied Biosystems). The amounts of mRNA were measured with SYBR Green PCR Master Mix (Ambion). Relative levels of transcript expression were assessed by the ∆∆Ct method, with Gapdh as an endogenous control. For qPCR primers used, see Supplementary Table 2.

40Human blastocyst (n = 6) were exposed to Tryple Express Select ×10 (ThermoFisher A1217701) for 15 min in 37 °C, and subsequently dissected with glass capillaries of different diameters.

41hEPSC-derived structures were cultured until Day 5 (see Generation of multicellular aggregates in 3D) or Day 6 (see In Vitro Culture of hEP-structures beyond implantation). We then selected structures based on the morphological criteria of having a cavity and acentric compact inner cell mass with glass capillaries. Roughly 50 structures were collected for Day 5 and Day 6 and each condition was performed in triplicate, for a total of ~150 structures per condition. hEP-structures were then first exposed to Tryple Express Select ×10 (ThermoFisher A1217701) for 15 mins in 37 °C, and subsequently dissected with glass capillaries of different diameters.

42hEPSCs were washed once with PBS and dissociated with Accutase (07920, Stem Cell Technologies) at 37 °C for 3 min. Cells were collected and pelleted by centrifugation for 4 min at 300 g and resuspended in hEP-LCDMYI medium (described above). This cell suspension was pre-incubated at 37 °C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2 on gelatinized tissue-culture-grade plates for 30 min to remove inactive MEFs.

43For single-cell sequencing, we used lipid-modified oligonucleotides (LMOs) to multiplex multiple samples into a single droplet microfluidics run. Dissociated cells from Day 5 hEP-derived structures, Day 6 hEP-derived structures, and 2D hEPSCs were labelled with sample-specific lipid-modified oligos (LMOs). Samples were washed to remove any leftover LMOs and then pooled into a multiplexed cell suspension that was run on a single lane of a 10× Genomics chip, using v3.0 reagents. Cells from the natural embryo were not multiplexed but were run concurrently on a parallel lane within the chip. The single-cell sequencing library was prepared as per the manufacturer’s instructions and sequenced on an Illumina Hiseq 4000 at a minimum coverage of 20,000 PE reads per cell (read 1: 28 bp, i7: 8 bp, read 2: 91 bp). Sample-specific LMO tags were separately amplified according to Ding et al. and sequenced at a read depth of 2,016 reads per cell. Sample demultiplexing was performed using an in-house demultiplexing pipeline that discovers sample-specific thresholds, scores each cell as being positive or negative for a specific tag, and retains only singly-labelled cells.

44Single-cell RNA-sequencing was performed using the 10× Genomics Chromium system. Reads were aligned against GRCh38. Further downstream analyses were performed in Python using the Scanpy toolkit (version 1.7.2) and Anndata (version 0.7.5). No cells were filtered for mitochondrial or ribosomal content. Initial analysis including normalization, scaling, identification of highly variable genes, and clustering was performed as described in the kalisto | bustools tutorial “Introduction to single-cell RNA-seq II: getting started with analysis”,. Single-cell data was further visualized using the UMAP dimensionality reduction, as determined by the sc.tl.umap function in Scanpy. Lineages were defined using sc.tl.score_genes function in scanpy and the gene list used for this function were taken from Supplementary Table 12 of Liu et al. (type: ALL-TE, ALL-EPI, ALL-PE), and are included as Supp. Data 1. A score for each lineage was given to every cell, and the “lineage” designation for each cell was determined by the highest score of the 3. Any cells with scores below 0.08 were denoted as “undefined”. All violin plots were made using sc.pl.violin function in Scanpy.

45To compare global gene expression patterns across datasets, we constructed large-scale heatmaps for each dataset clustered using unsupervised methods (orthogonal non-negative matrix factorization for gene programs and hierarchical clustering for cells). First, we integrated multiple datasets together by keeping only the intersection of genes found across all datasets (n = 18379 genes). We then used the PopAlign framework to filter highly variable genes, and normalize the datasets. Normalization was done by dividing each transcript count by the sum total within the cell, scaling by 10,000, adding a + 1 pseudocount, and then logging. To find gene programs, we randomly sampled 5,000 cells across the integrated dataset, and then ran orthogonal non-negative matrix factorization find a set of 16 feature vectors. We discovered the top genes within each feature, and used this gene list to organize the gene expression heatmaps for each dataset (popalign.plot_top_gene_features). Cells within each dataset were clustered using scipy hierarchical clustering (scipy.cluster.hierarchy) using correlation distance, and linkage = complete. Gene programs were then manually reorganized into groups which were Universal across all datasets, or more specifically enriched in the Natural Embryo, D5, or D6 stem cell-derived embryo-like structures. We then ran a gene set enrichment analysis based on the hypergeometric test (popalign.enrichment_analysis) on these gene groups using Reactome-signalling gene sets to identify specific signalling pathways that are up-regulated.

46Statistical tests were performed on GraphPad Prism 8.4.3 software. Figure legends indicate the statistical tests used and number of independent experiments performed in each analysis. All error bars defined in the legends. Unless otherwise noted, each experiment was performed at least two times. Statistical significance: p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant (*), p < 0.01 (**), p < 0.001 (***), p < 0.0001 (****).

47Further information on research design is available in the Nature Research Reporting Summary linked to this article.