Large-Scale Clonal Analysis Resolves Aging of the Mouse Hematopoietic Stem Cell Compartment

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Human umbilical cord tissue stem cells and neuronal lineages in an injectable caffeic acid–bioconjugated gelatin hydrogel for transplantation

Present-day scaffolds are useful in cell therapy to a reasonable extent, but in pursuit of improvising the scaffold to improve the outcome, we tested a new injectable caffeic acid–bioconjugated gelatin hydrogel scaffold (CBGH; with tunable stiffness −10%). Two-dimensional (2D) form of human umbilical cord tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (HUCMSCs) culture performed based on our previously reported methods and characterized by using multipotent and pluripotent analysis. In addition, neurogenesis was induced in the presence of retinoic acid or neural growth factor or epidermal growth factor categorized by neuronal markers. The viability, proliferation rate, and vascular endothelial growth factor expression of HUCMSCs increased significantly in the CBGH scaffold. In addition, there was an increase in CD90 and TRA-1-81 phenotypic expressions and SOX-2, MAP-2, TAU, NeuN, and NF, which confirmed the neurogenesis of encapsulated HUCMSCs. Topographical elucidation by scanning electron microscopy data showed that the HUCMSCs proliferated and migrated inside the construct. Hematoxylin and eosin staining demonstrated a more viable structural pattern and cresyl violet staining showed the Nissl synthesis, confirming the presence of functional neurons in the encapsulated form. The molecular-level analysis further substantiated that HUCMSCs cultured in CBGH expressed significantly greater upregulation of stemness, neuronal genes, and protein expression compared with the adherent culture. Correspondingly, this is the first time that we have measured the fluorescence intensity variation of the HUCMSCs-stained cell segmentation process using customized MATLAB code execution to reduce the background noise and autofluorescence. We conclude that this novel CBGH scaffold increases the viability, proliferation, stemness, and also neuronal transdifferentiation of HUCMSCs in a three-dimensional culture than the 2D plastic adherent culture.     

Selection of Rodent Species Appropriate for mtDNA Transfer to Generate Transmitochondrial Mito-Mice Expressing Mitochondrial Respiration Defects

Previous reports have shown that transmitochondrial mito-mice with nuclear DNA from Mus musculus and mtDNA from M. spretus do not express respiration defects, whereas those with mtDNA from Rattus norvegicus cannot be generated from ES cybrids with mtDNA from R. norvegicus due to inducing significant respiration defects and resultant losing multipotency. Here, we isolated transmitochondrial cybrids with mtDNA from various rodent species classified between M. spretus and R. norvegicus, and compared the O₂ consumption rates. The results showed a strong negative correlation between phylogenetic distance and reduction of O₂ consumption rates, which would be due to the coevolution of nuclear and mitochondrial genomes and the resultant incompatibility between the nuclear genome from M. musculus and the mitochondrial genome from the other rodent species. These observations suggested that M. caroli was an appropriate mtDNA donor to generate transmitochondrial mito-mice with nuclear DNA from M. musculus. Then, we generated ES cybrids with M. caroli mtDNA, and found that these ES cybrids expressed respiration defects without losing multipotency and can be used to generate transmitochondrial mito-mice expressing mitochondrial disorders.     

Characterization of Nestin-positive stem Leydig cells as a potential source for the treatment of testicular Leydig cell dysfunction

The ability to identify and isolate lineage-specific stem cells from adult tissues could facilitate cell replacement therapy. Leydig cells (LCs) are the primary source of androgen in the mammalian testis, and the prospective identification of stem Leydig cells (SLCs) may offer new opportunities for treating testosterone deficiency. Here, in a transgenic mouse model expressing GFP driven by the Nestin (Nes) promoter, we observed Nes-GFP⁺ cells located in the testicular interstitial compartment where SLCs normally reside. We showed that these Nes-GFP⁺ cells expressed LIFR and PDGFR-α, but not LC lineage markers. We further observed that these cells were capable of clonogenic self-renewal and extensive proliferation in vitro and could differentiate into neural or mesenchymal cell lineages, as well as LCs, with the ability to produce testosterone, under defined conditions. Moreover, when transplanted into the testes of LC-disrupted or aging models, the Nes-GFP⁺ cells colonized the interstitium and partially increased testosterone production, and then accelerated meiotic and post-meiotic germ cell recovery. In addition, we further demonstrated that CD51 might be a putative cell surface marker for SLCs, similar with Nestin. Taken together, these results suggest that Nes-GFP⁺ cells from the testis have the characteristics of SLCs, and our study would shed new light on developing stem cell replacement therapy for testosterone deficiency.     

人羊水来源干细胞的体外培养及其生物学性状分析

目的:体外分离培养人羊水来源干细胞(hAFSC),观察分析其基本的生物学性状。方法:取孕中期产前诊断所抽取的羊水,离心收集细胞,然后贴壁培养获得hAFSC。在细胞培养的基础上,观察hAFSC的形态;研究其增殖能力;用流式细胞术测定细胞周期及不同代次细胞表面阶段特异性胚胎抗原4(SSEA-4)表达率的变化;利用RT-PCR方法检测细胞干性基因的表达;利用诱导培养基诱导,检测其向肝样细胞与成骨细胞分化的潜能。结果:在体外培养条件下,hAFSC表现为成纤维细胞形态;具有良好的增殖能力,群体倍增时间约为36 h;细胞周期检测G0/G1期细胞约占86.7%,S+G2/M期细胞约占13.3%;流式细胞术检测结果表明,hAFSC表达SSEA-4,且SSEA-4阳性率随传代次数呈现先上升后下降的趋势;hAFSC在mRNA水平上表达Nanog、Oct4和Rex1等胚胎干细胞标志性基因;经诱导培养基诱导后,hAFSC可以向肝样细胞与成骨细胞分化。结论:hAFSC是一群呈成纤维细胞样,有良好增殖能力,且具有多向分化潜能的细胞,加之其来源方便,伦理学限制较少,因此在细胞治疗及组织工程等方面有着广泛的应用前景。     

Conditional TGF‐β1 treatment increases stem cell‐like cell population in myoblasts

The limitation in successfully acquiring large populations of stem cell has impeded their application. A new method based on the dedifferentiation of adult somatic cells to generate induced multipotent stem cells would allow us to obtain a large amount of autologous stem cells for regenerative medicine. The current work was proposed to induce a sub‐population of cells with characteristics of muscle stem cells from myoblasts through conditional treatment of transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β₁. Our results show that a lower concentration of TGF‐β₁ is able to promote C2C12 myoblasts to express stem cell markers as well as to repress myogenic proteins, which involves a mechanism of dedifferentiation. Moreover, TGF‐β₁ treatment promoted the proliferation‐arrested C2C12 myoblasts to re‐enter the S‐phase. We also investigated the multi‐differentiation potentials of the dedifferentiated cells. TGF‐β₁ pre‐treated C2C12 myoblasts were implanted into mice to repair dystrophic skeletal muscle or injured bone. In addition to the C2C12 myoblasts, similar effects of TGF‐β₁ were also observed in the primary myoblasts of mice. Our results suggest that TGF‐β₁ is effective as a molecular trigger for the dedifferentiation of skeletal muscle myoblasts and could be used to generate a large pool of progenitor cells that collectively behave as multipotent stem cell‐like cells for regenerative medicine applications.     

毛囊干细胞

毛囊干细胞被认为是具慢周期性特点,但特定条件下具有较高增殖能力和克隆形成潜能的细胞。它们在形态学和生物化学上处于较原始的状态,常具有多潜能性。利用干细胞标记技术和克隆形成能力检测手段,人们发现毛囊干细胞主要存在于位于毛囊上半部的隆突部位。毛囊干细胞潜在的分子标记包括β1-整合素、α6-整合素、CD71、角蛋白19、p63和CD34,而在体内和体外它们的分子标记也不尽相同。毛囊隆突部位的干细胞能够分化成表皮、上皮性毛根鞘、发杆和皮脂腺。在个体发育过程中,它们具有分化成其他多种细胞系的能力。对于在毛发形态形成和生长周期中毛囊干细胞的行为,研究者们提出了多种假说,包括隆突激活假说和干细胞迁移假说。如今,毛囊干细胞主要应用于制备皮肤的代替品。     

A new subset of small stem cells in bovine bone marrow stromal cell populations

Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) are a unique population of multipotent cells that exhibit pluripotent properties to a certain extent and are significantly heterogeneous in terms of the cell population. We isolate a small cell subpopulation from bovine BMSCs, bovine small stem cells (bSSCs), and herein characterize their properties. The bSSCs are smaller in size and express nuclear Oct-4 and other pluripotency markers. In addition, when cultured in suspension conditions, bSSCs form three-dimensional spheres and display a strong capability for self-renewal and differentiation into cells from three germ layers. Notably, bSSCs display neural features with Sox1 and Pax6 expression. Using bSSCs as donor nuclear cells for somatic cell nuclear transfer, we further demonstrate that the developmental potential of cloned embryos in vitro is significantly increased. Our study identifies a new bovine bone marrow stromal cell–derived stem cell subtype that could have broad importance for developmental biology as well as great potential for regenerative medicine.     

Odd-skipped maintains prohemocyte potency and blocks blood cell development in Drosophila

Studies using Drosophila have contributed significantly to our understanding of regulatory mechanisms that control stem cell fate choice. The Drosophila blood cell progenitor or prohemocyte shares important characteristics with mammalian hematopoietic stem cells, including quiescence, niche dependence, and the capacity to form all three fly blood cell types. This report extends our understanding of prohemocyte fate choice by showing that the zinc-finger protein Odd-skipped promotes multipotency and blocks differentiation. Odd-skipped was expressed in prohemocytes and downregulated in terminally differentiated plasmatocytes. Furthermore, Odd-skipped maintained the prohemocyte population and blocked differentiation of plasmatocytes and lamellocytes but not crystal cells. A previous study showed that Odd-skipped expression is downregulated by Decapentaplegic signaling. This report provides a functional basis for this regulator/target pair by suggesting that Decapentaplegic signaling limits Odd-skipped expression to promote prohemocyte differentiation. Overall, these studies are the basis for a gene regulatory model of prohemocyte cell fate choice.