Derivation of Airway Basal Stem Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

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Feeder-free Derivation of Melanocytes from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represent a platform to study human development in vitro under both normal and disease conditions. Researchers can direct the differentiation of hPSCs into the cell type of interest by manipulating the culture conditions to recapitulate signals seen during development. One such cell type is the melanocyte, a pigment-producing cell of neural crest (NC) origin responsible for protecting the skin against UV irradiation. This protocol presents an extension of a currently available in vitro Neural Crest differentiation protocol from hPSCs to further differentiate NC into fully pigmented melanocytes. Melanocyte precursors can be enriched from the Neural Crest protocol via a timed exposure to activators of WNT, BMP, and EDN3 signaling under dual-SMAD-inhibition conditions. The resultant melanocyte precursors are then purified and matured into fully pigmented melanocytes by culture in a selective medium. The resultant melanocytes are fully pigmented and stain appropriately for proteins characteristic of mature melanocytes.     

Derivation of Hair-Inducing Cell from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Dermal Papillae (DP) is a unique population of mesenchymal cells that was shown to regulate hair follicle formation and growth cycle. During development most DP cells are derived from mesoderm, however, functionally equivalent DP cells of cephalic hairs originate from Neural Crest (NC). Here we directed human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to generate first NC cells and then hair-inducing DP-like cells in culture. We showed that hESC-derived DP-like cells (hESC-DPs) express markers typically found in adult human DP cells (e.g. p-75, nestin, versican, SMA, alkaline phosphatase) and are able to induce hair follicle formation when transplanted under the skin of immunodeficient NUDE mice. Engineered to express GFP, hESC-derived DP-like cells incorporate into DP of newly formed hair follicles and express appropriate markers. We demonstrated that BMP signaling is critical for hESC-DP derivation since BMP inhibitor dorsomorphin completely eliminated hair-inducing activity from hESC-DP cultures. DP cells were proposed as the cell-based treatment for hair loss diseases. Unfortunately human DP cells are not suitable for this purpose because they cannot be obtained in necessary amounts and rapidly loose their ability to induce hair follicle formation when cultured. In this context derivation of functional hESC-DP cells capable of inducing a robust hair growth for the first time shown here can become an important finding for the biomedical science.     

A Systematic Evaluation of Integration Free Reprogramming Methods for Deriving Clinically Relevant Patient Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cells

A systematic evaluation of three different methods for generating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells was performed using the same set of parental cells in our quest to develop a feeder independent and xeno-free method for somatic cell reprogramming that could be transferred into a GMP environment. When using the BJ fibroblast cell line, the highest reprogramming efficiency (1.89% of starting cells) was observed with the mRNA based method which was almost 20 fold higher than that observed with the retrovirus (0.2%) and episomal plasmid (0.10%) methods. Standard characterisation tests did not reveal any differences in an array of pluripotency markers between the iPS lines derived using the various methods. However, when the same methods were used to reprogram three different primary fibroblasts lines, two derived from patients with rapid onset parkinsonism dystonia and one from an elderly healthy volunteer, we consistently observed higher reprogramming efficiencies with the episomal plasmid method, which was 4 fold higher when compared to the retroviral method and over 50 fold higher than the mRNA method. Additionally, with the plasmid reprogramming protocol, recombinant vitronectin and synthemax® could be used together with commercially available, fully defined, xeno-free essential 8 medium without significantly impacting the reprogramming efficiency. To demonstrate the robustness of this protocol, we reprogrammed a further 2 primary patient cell lines, one with retinosa pigmentosa and the other with Parkinsons disease. We believe that we have optimised a simple and reproducible method which could be used as a starting point for developing GMP protocols, a prerequisite for generating clinically relevant patient specific iPS cells.     

Feeder-free Derivation of Neural Crest Progenitor Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have great potential for studying human embryonic development, for modeling human diseases in the dish and as a source of transplantable cells for regenerative applications after disease or accidents. Neural crest (NC) cells are the precursors for a large variety of adult somatic cells, such as cells from the peripheral nervous system and glia, melanocytes and mesenchymal cells. They are a valuable source of cells to study aspects of human embryonic development, including cell fate specification and migration. Further differentiation of NC progenitor cells into terminally differentiated cell types offers the possibility to model human diseases in vitro, investigate disease mechanisms and generate cells for regenerative medicine. This article presents the adaptation of a currently available in vitro differentiation protocol for the derivation of NC cells from hPSCs. This new protocol requires 18 days of differentiation, is feeder-free, easily scalable and highly reproducible among human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines as well as human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) lines. Both old and new protocols yield NC cells of equal identity.     

Derivation of Intermediate Pluripotent Stem Cells Amenable to Primordial Germ Cell Specification

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Derivation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Human Peripheral Blood T Lymphocytes

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold enormous potential for the development of personalized in vitro disease models, genomic health analyses, and autologous cell therapy. Here we describe the generation of T lymphocyte-derived iPSCs from small, clinically advantageous volumes of non-mobilized peripheral blood. These T-cell derived iPSCs (“TiPS”) retain a normal karyotype and genetic identity to the donor. They share common characteristics with human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) with respect to morphology, pluripotency-associated marker expression and capacity to generate neurons, cardiomyocytes, and hematopoietic progenitor cells. Additionally, they retain their characteristic T-cell receptor (TCR) gene rearrangements, a property which could be exploited for iPSC clone tracking and T-cell development studies. Reprogramming T-cells procured in a minimally invasive manner can be used to characterize and expand donor specific iPSCs, and control their differentiation into specific lineages.     

Efficient Derivation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells with a c-Myc-Free Non-Integrating Episomal Vector

正Human induced pluripotent stem cells(hi PSCs)can self-renew indefinitely and have the potential to differentiate into all cell types in the human body,thus hold great promise in regenerative medicine,drug screening and developmental biology studies.However,integrating retroviral(Takahashi et al.,2007)or lentiviral(Hockemeyer et al.,2008)gene delivery systems and the exogenous oncogene c-Myc(Takahashi et al.,     

多顺反子质粒重编程人脂肪干细胞为诱导多能干细胞

为建立多顺反子质粒载体转染技术获得人脂肪干细胞(adipose stem cells,ASCs)来源的诱导多能干细胞(induced pluripotency stem cells,iPSCs),应用2A元件连接Oct4/Sox2/KLF4/c-Myc四因子基因,构建为单一开放阅读框的多顺反子质粒载体．使用该质粒对ASCs进行转染及重编程为iPSC．采用形态学观察、特异性抗体免疫荧光鉴定、体外拟胚体诱导分化和体内畸胎瘤形成等方法进行鉴定．结果显示,ASCs成功重编程为iPSCs,具有与人胚胎干细胞相似的形态学及多向分化潜能;通过拟胚体和畸胎瘤实验证实iPSCs能在体内外分化成三胚层细胞;DNA印迹实验显示质粒载体序列未整合至iPSCs基因组中．因此,通过多顺反子质粒载体重编程技术成功建立的人iPSCs具有多向分化潜能,可减免发生插入突变和免疫排斥问题,为iPSCs在遗传性或退行性疾病的治疗奠定了实验基础．     

Derivation of Transgene-Free Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Human Peripheral T Cells in Defined Culture Conditions

Recently, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were established as promising cell sources for revolutionary regenerative therapies. The initial culture system used for iPSC generation needed fetal calf serum in the culture medium and mouse embryonic fibroblast as a feeder layer, both of which could possibly transfer unknown exogenous antigens and pathogens into the iPSC population. Therefore, the development of culture systems designed to minimize such potential risks has become increasingly vital for future applications of iPSCs for clinical use. On another front, although donor cell types for generating iPSCs are wide-ranging, T cells have attracted attention as unique cell sources for iPSCs generation because T cell-derived iPSCs (TiPSCs) have a unique monoclonal T cell receptor genomic rearrangement that enables their differentiation into antigen-specific T cells, which can be applied to novel immunotherapies. In the present study, we generated transgene-free human TiPSCs using a combination of activated human T cells and Sendai virus under defined culture conditions. These TiPSCs expressed pluripotent markers by quantitative PCR and immunostaining, had a normal karyotype, and were capable of differentiating into cells from all three germ layers. This method of TiPSCs generation is more suitable for the therapeutic application of iPSC technology because it lowers the risks associated with the presence of undefined, animal-derived feeder cells and serum. Therefore this work will lead to establishment of safer iPSCs and extended clinical application.     

Directed Differentiation of Notochord-like and Nucleus Pulposus-like Cells Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

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Generation of Integration-free Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Using Hair-derived Keratinocytes

Recent advances in reprogramming allow us to turn somatic cells into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Disease modeling using patient-specific hiPSCs allows the study of the underlying mechanism for pathogenesis, also providing a platform for the development of in vitro drug screening and gene therapy to improve treatment options. The promising potential of hiPSCs for regenerative medicine is also evident from the increasing number of publications (>7000) on iPSCs in recent years. Various cell types from distinct lineages have been successfully used for hiPSC generation, including skin fibroblasts, hematopoietic cells and epidermal keratinocytes. While skin biopsies and blood collection are routinely performed in many labs as a source of somatic cells for the generation of hiPSCs, the collection and subsequent derivation of hair keratinocytes are less commonly used. Hair-derived keratinocytes represent a non-invasive approach to obtain cell samples from patients. Here we outline a simple non-invasive method for the derivation of keratinocytes from plucked hair. We also provide instructions for maintenance of keratinocytes and subsequent reprogramming to generate integration-free hiPSC using episomal vectors.     

Pluripotency of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Induced pluripotent stem （iPS） cells can be generated by forced expression of four pluripotency factors in somatic cells. This has received much attention in recent years since it may offer us a promising donor cell source for cell transplantation therapy. There has been great progress in iPS cell research in the past few years. However, several issues need to be further addressed in the near future before the clinical application of iPS cells, like the immunogenieity of iPS cells, the variability of differentiation potential and most importantly tumor formation of the iPS derivative cells. Here, we review recent progress in research into the pluripotency of iPS cells.     

Expandable Megakaryocyte Cell Lines Enable Clinically Applicable Generation of Platelets from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

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