体细胞重编程为多能干细胞的研究进展

体细胞通过重编程转变成其他类型的细胞,在再生医学方面具有重要的应用前景。细胞重编程的方法主要有体细胞核移植、细胞融合、细胞提取物诱导、限定因子诱导等,这些方法可以不同程度地改变细胞命运。最近,限定因子诱导的多能干细胞（induced pluripotent stem cell。iPS）为重编程提供了一种崭新的方法,不仅可以避免伦理争议,还提供了一种更为便利的技术,为再生医学开辟了新的天地;同时,iPS技术为研究基因表达调控、蛋白质互作、机体生长发育等提供了一个非常重要的研究手段。本文主要论述了体细胞重编程的方法及iPS细胞的进展、面临的问题和应用前景。     

microRNA在诱导体细胞重编程中的作用

microRNA是调控基因转录后水平的一类长度约为22个核苷酸的非编码小分子RNA。大量研究证实, microRNAs广泛分布于真核生物, 其在细胞的分化发育、生长代谢等各种活动中都起着重要的调节作用。诱导多能性干细胞(Induced pluripotent stem cell, iPS)是将体细胞诱导成为具有胚胎干细胞性质的多潜能干细胞。iPS过程的核心为体细胞表观遗传状态发生重编程, 因此, 探明体细胞重编程机制对建立完善的iPS技术具有重要理论和实际意义。利用病毒载体将Oct4、Sox2、Klf4和c-Myc等因子导入体细胞的方法已不断发展, 但“基因组整合”及原癌基因的参与增加了诱导细胞的致癌率。随着使用腺病毒、质粒或蛋白诱导等“非整合型”方法及L-myc的替换均可获得具有多潜能性的干细胞, 癌变的风险大大降低。但其发生的理论机制仍不十分清楚。最近的研究证实, microRNAs影响体细胞的重编程过程, 特别是miR302/367、miR200、miR-34和miR290/295等家族的microRNAs在体细胞诱导为iPS过程中发挥重要作用。文章就近年microRNA在诱导多能干细胞中的作用进行综述。     

Integration-free iPS cells engineered using human artificial chromosome vectors

Human artificial chromosomes (HACs) have unique characteristics as gene-delivery vectors, including episomal transmission and transfer of multiple, large transgenes. Here, we demonstrate the advantages of HAC vectors for reprogramming mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Two HAC vectors (iHAC1 and iHAC2) were constructed. Both carried four reprogramming factors, and iHAC2 also encoded a p53-knockdown cassette. iHAC1 partially reprogrammed MEFs, and iHAC2 efficiently reprogrammed MEFs. Global gene expression patterns showed that the iHACs, unlike other vectors, generated relatively uniform iPS cells. Under non-selecting conditions, we established iHAC-free iPS cells by isolating cells that spontaneously lost iHAC2. Analyses of pluripotent markers, teratomas and chimeras confirmed that these iHAC-free iPS cells were pluripotent. Moreover, iHAC-free iPS cells with a re-introduced HAC encoding Herpes Simplex virus thymidine kinase were eliminated by ganciclovir treatment, indicating that the HAC safeguard system functioned in iPS cells. Thus, the HAC vector could generate uniform, integration-free iPS cells with a built-in safeguard system.     

Activation of the Imprinted Dlk1-Dio3 Region Correlates with Pluripotency Levels of Mouse Stem Cells

Low reprogramming efficiency and reduced pluripotency have been the two major obstacles in induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell research. An effective and quick method to assess the pluripotency levels of iPS cells at early stages would significantly increase the success rate of iPS cell generation and promote its applications. We have identified a conserved imprinted region of the mouse genome, the Dlk1-Dio3 region, which was activated in fully pluripotent mouse stem cells but repressed in partially pluripotent cells. The degree of activation of this region was positively correlated with the pluripotency levels of stem cells. A mammalian conserved cluster of microRNAs encoded by this region exhibited significant expression differences between full and partial pluripotent stem cells. Several microRNAs from this cluster potentially target components of the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) and may form a feedback regulatory loop resulting in the expression of all genes and non-coding RNAs encoded by this region in full pluripotent stem cells. No other genomic regions were found to exhibit such clear expression changes between cell lines with different pluripotency levels; therefore, the Dlk1-Dio3 region may serve as a marker to identify fully pluripotent iPS or embryonic stem cells from partial pluripotent cells. These findings also provide a step forward toward understanding the operating mechanisms during reprogramming to produce iPS cells and can potentially promote the application of iPS cells in regenerative medicine and cancer therapy.     

Emerging roles of microRNAs in the control of embryonic stem cells and the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as critical regulators of gene expression. These small, non-coding RNAs are believed to regulate more than a third of all protein coding genes, and they have been implicated in the control of virtually all biological processes, including the biology of stem cells. The essential roles of miRNAs in the control of pluripotent stem cells were clearly established by the finding that embryonic stem (ES) cells lacking proteins required for miRNA biogenesis exhibit defects in proliferation and differentiation. Subsequently, the function of numerous miRNAs has been shown to control the fate of ES cells and to directly influence critical gene regulatory networks controlled by pluripotency factors Sox2, Oct4, and Nanog. Moreover, a growing list of tissue-specific miRNAs, which are silenced or not processed fully in ES cells, has been found to promote differentiation upon their expression and proper processing. The importance of miRNAs for ES cells is further indicated by the exciting discovery that specific miRNA mimics or miRNA inhibitors promote the reprogramming of somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Although some progress has been made during the past two years in our understanding of the contribution of specific miRNAs during reprogramming, further progress is needed since it is highly likely that miRNAs play even wider roles in the generation of iPS cells than currently appreciated. This review examines recent developments related to the roles of miRNAs in the biology of pluripotent stem cells. In addition, we posit that more than a dozen additional miRNAs are excellent candidates for influencing the generation of iPS cells as well as for providing new insights into the process of reprogramming.     

A novel strategy to derive iPS cells from porcine fibroblasts

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology demonstrates that somatic cells can be reprogrammed to a pluripotent state by over-expressing four reprogramming factors. This technology has created an interest in deriving iPS cells from domesticated animals such as pigs, sheep and cattle. Moloney murine leukemia retrovirus vectors have been widely used to generate and study mouse iPS cells. However, this retrovirus system infects only mouse and rat cells, which limits its use in establishing iPS cells from other mammals. In our study, we demonstrate a novel retrovirus strategy to efficiently generate porcine iPS cells from embryonic fibroblasts. We transfected four human reprogramming factors (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and Myc) into fibroblasts in one step by using a VSV-G envelope-coated pantropic retrovirus that was easily packaged by GP2-293 cells. We established six embryonic stem (ES)-like cell lines in human ES cell medium supplemented with bFGF. Colonies showed a similar morphology to human ES cells with a high nuclei-cytoplasm ratio and phase-bright flat colonies. Porcine iPS cells could form embryoid bodies in vitro and differentiate into the three germ layers in vivo by forming teratomas in immunodeficient mice.     

Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells: In Quest of Clinical Applications

In the field of regenerative medicine, the development of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells may represent a potential strategy to overcome the limitations of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). iPS cells have the potential to mimic human disease, since they carry the genome of the donor. Hypothetically, with iPS cell technology it is possible to screen patients for a genetic cause of disease (genetic mutation), develop cell lines, reprogram them back to iPS cells, finally differentiate them into one or more cell types that develop the disease. Although the creation of multiple lineages with iPS cells can seem limitless, a number of challenges need to be addressed in order to effectively use these cell lines for disease modeling. These include the low efficiency of iPS cell generation without genetic alterations, the possibility of tumor formation in vivo, the random integration of retroviral-based delivery vectors into the genome, and unregulated growth of the remaining cells that are partially reprogrammed and refractory to differentiation. The establishment of protein or RNA-based reprogramming strategies will help generate human iPS cells without permanent genetic alterations. Finally, direct reprogramming strategies can provide rapid production of models of human ??diseases in a dish??, without first passing the cells through a pluripotent state, so avoiding the challenges of time-consumming and labor-intensive iPS cell line generation. This review will overview methods to develop iPS cells, current strategies for direct reprogramming, and main applications of iPS cells as human disease model, focusing on human cardiovascular diseases, with the aim to be a potential information resource for biomedical scientists and clinicians who exploit or intend to exploit iPS cell technology in a range of applications.