Two Factor Reprogramming of Human Neural Stem Cells into Pluripotency

Background

Reprogramming human somatic cells to pluripotency represents a valuable resource for the development of in vitro based models for human disease and holds tremendous potential for deriving patient-specific pluripotent stem cells. Recently, mouse neural stem cells (NSCs) have been shown capable of reprogramming into a pluripotent state by forced expression of Oct3/4 and Klf4; however it has been unknown whether this same strategy could apply to human NSCs, which would result in more relevant pluripotent stem cells for modeling human disease.

Methodology and Principal Findings

Here, we show that OCT3/4 and KLF4 are indeed sufficient to induce pluripotency from human NSCs within a two week time frame and are molecularly indistinguishable from human ES cells. Furthermore, human NSC-derived pluripotent stem cells can differentiate into all three germ lineages both in vitro and in vivo.

Conclusions/Significance

We propose that human NSCs represent an attractive source of cells for producing human iPS cells since they only require two factors, obviating the need for c-MYC, for induction into pluripotency. Thus, in vitro human disease models could be generated from iPS cells derived from human NSCs.     

体细胞重编程逆转为干细胞的研究进展

目前细胞和发育生物学上的研究成果为生物医学研究提供了广泛的前景.将完全分化的细胞重编程,不经过胚胎逆转为多能干细胞状态,这点燃了再生医学应用的新希望,这一成果从法律、道德、伦理等不同方面被人们所接受.通过体细胞克隆胚胎获得干细胞所面临的破坏胚胎的伦理限制,促使研究者去寻求将分化细胞重编程逆转为干细胞的新方法.主要论述了体细胞重编程的原理、过程及不经过胚胎逆转为多能干细胞的方法.     

细胞提取物介导的体细胞重编程

将完全分化的细胞重编程,不经胚胎阶段而直接逆转至多能干细胞状态,这从法律.道德,伦理等方面均被人们所接受,重新点燃了人们对体细胞重编程的热情,点燃了再生医学研究的新希望.现重点阐述细胞提取物介导的体细胞重编程的原理及其应用前景,并详细介绍体细胞重编程的最新方法:细胞核移植入卵母细胞:体细胞与胚胎干细胞或胚胎癌细胞融合;在体细胞中强制性过表达特定的转录因子;用卵细胞、胚胎干细胞或多能癌细胞的细胞提取物处理体细胞等.     

体细胞重编程为诱导多能干细胞

诱导多功能性干细胞（induced pluripotent stem cells,iPS细胞）是通过导入特定的转录因子（如Oct3/4、Sox2、c-Myc和Klf4等）将体细胞诱导重编程为多能性干细胞,其功能与胚胎干细胞相似.iPS细胞的建立,在生命科学领域引起了新的轰动.目前,iPS细胞的研究领域在转录因子的优化、iPS细胞的筛选、载体的运用、体细胞种类的选择和iPS细胞的应用等方面取得突破进展,但仍然存在致癌性、效率低等一系列急需解决的问题.     

INO80 Facilitates Pluripotency Gene Activation in Embryonic Stem Cell Self-Renewal,Reprogramming, and Blastocyst Development

1. Download : Download high-res image (263KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

     

体细胞重编程为多能干细胞的研究进展

胚胎干细胞不仅是研究哺乳动物早期胚胎发育、细胞分化、基因表达调控等发育生物学问题的有力工具,还可用于新药评价、细胞治疗等方面的研究.然而,为科学研究而捐献的人类卵子并不能够轻易获得,限制了人类胚胎干细胞相关研究的进展,解决这个问题的理想办法就是找到能够替代胚胎干细胞的其他成体多能细胞.综述了将哺乳动物体细胞诱导为多能干细胞的方法,重点介绍了利用特定的转录因子将体细胞诱导为诱导多能干细胞(induced pluripotent stem cells,iPS细胞)的最新进展,详细阐述了转录因子在诱导细胞重编程过程中发挥的作用,以及iPS细胞筛选与鉴定的方法,并展望了iPS细胞的应用前景.     

体细胞直接重编程为神经元和神经干细胞

体细胞直接重编程是由已分化细胞类型不经过诱导型多能干细胞(Induced pluripotent stem cells,i PSCs)中间阶段,直接转换为另一种细胞类型的重编程过程。体细胞直接重编程避免了i PSC技术存在的重编程效率低下、引入致癌基因等多种缺陷,并为细胞替换治疗和个性化医药研发设想贡献了新的实现途径。现代医学对于诸如神经退行性疾病、神经遗传疾病和外伤导致的神经细胞受损等一些神经系统疾病一直没有有效的治疗手段。而体细胞直接重编程为治疗这些疾病提供了另一种治疗途径,因此体细胞直接重编程为神经细胞相关领域迅速成为研究热点。回顾了体细胞重编程为诱导型神经元(Induced neurons,i Ns)和诱导型神经干细胞(Induced neural stem cells,i NSCs)的最新研究进展,并探讨i Ns和i NSCs在临床应用上的各自优势、局限性及应用前景。     

体细胞重编程为诱导多能干细胞的研究

通过逆转录病毒将4个基因(Oct4 、 Sox2、c-Myc和Klf4)导入小鼠胚胎成纤维细胞 (mouse embryonic fibroblast, MEF)中,能诱导形成胚胎干细胞样特性的诱导多能干(induced pluripotent stem, iPS)细胞.人类iPS细胞的成功构建开拓了广泛的应用前景.本文简要综述了 iPS细胞的基因筛选,转导基因的选择以及iPS细胞的表观遗传特性等.     

Overlapping Genes May Control Reprogramming of Mouse Somatic Cells into Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) and Breast Cancer Stem Cells

Recent findings suggest the possibility that tumors originate from cancer cells with stem cell properties. The cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis provides an explanation for why existing cancer therapies often fail in eradicating highly malignant tumors and end with tumor recurrence. Although normal stem cells and CSCs both share the capacity for self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation, suggesting that CSC may be derived from normal SCs, the cellular origin of transformation of CSCs is debatable. Research suggests that the tightly controlled balance of self-renewal and differentiation that characterizes normal stem cell function is dis-regulated in cancer. Additionally, recent evidence has linked an embryonic stem cell (ESC)-like gene signature with poorly differentiated high-grade tumors, suggesting that regulatory pathways controlling pluripotency may in part contribute to the somatic CSC phenotype. Here, we introduce expression profile bioinformatic analyses of mouse breast cells with CSC properties, mouse embryonic stem (mES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells with an emphasis on how study of pluripotent stem cells may contribute to the identification of genes and pathways that facilitate events associated with oncogenesis. Global gene expression analysis from CSCs and induced pluripotent stem cell lines represent an ideal model to study cancer initiation and progression and provide insight into the origin cancer stem cells. Additionally, insight into the genetic and epigenomic mechanisms regulating the balance between self-renewal and differentiation of somatic stem cells and cancer may help to determine whether different strategies used to generate iPSCs are potentially safe for therapeutic use.     

Hypoxia-Inducible Factors Have Distinct and Stage-Specific Roles during Reprogramming of Human Cells to Pluripotency

1. Download : Download high-res image (80KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

     

Construction and Validation of a Regulatory Network for Pluripotency and Self-Renewal of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

A 30-node signed and directed network responsible for self-renewal and pluripotency of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) was extracted from several ChIP-Seq and knockdown followed by expression prior studies. The underlying regulatory logic among network components was then learned using the initial network topology and single cell gene expression measurements from mESCs cultured in serum/LIF or serum-free 2i/LIF conditions. Comparing the learned network regulatory logic derived from cells cultured in serum/LIF vs. 2i/LIF revealed differential roles for Nanog, Oct4/Pou5f1, Sox2, Esrrb and Tcf3. Overall, gene expression in the serum/LIF condition was more variable than in the 2i/LIF but mostly consistent across the two conditions. Expression levels for most genes in single cells were bimodal across the entire population and this motivated a Boolean modeling approach. In silico predictions derived from removal of nodes from the Boolean dynamical model were validated with experimental single and combinatorial RNA interference (RNAi) knockdowns of selected network components. Quantitative post-RNAi expression level measurements of remaining network components showed good agreement with the in silico predictions. Computational removal of nodes from the Boolean network model was also used to predict lineage specification outcomes. In summary, data integration, modeling, and targeted experiments were used to improve our understanding of the regulatory topology that controls mESC fate decisions as well as to develop robust directed lineage specification protocols.     

Ultra-High-Frequency Reprogramming of Individual Long-Term Hematopoietic Stem Cells Yields Low Somatic Variant Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

1. Download high-res image (215KB)
2. Download full-size image