搜索结果: 'gmp t cell activator'

While in vitro liver tissue engineering has been increasingly studied during the last several years,presently engineered liver tissues lack the bile duct system. The lack of bile drainage not only hinders essential digestive functions of the liver,but also leads to accumulation of bile that is toxic to hepatocytes and known to cause liver cirrhosis. Clearly,generation of bile duct tissue is essential for engineering functional and healthy liver. Differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to bile duct tissue requires long and/or complex culture conditions,and has been inefficient so far. Towards generating a fully functional liver containing biliary system,we have developed defined and controlled conditions for efficient 2D and 3D bile duct epithelial tissue generation. A marker for multipotent liver progenitor in both adult human liver and ductal plate in human fetal liver,EpCAM,is highly expressed in hepatic spheroids generated from human iPSCs. The EpCAM high hepatic spheroids can,not only efficiently generate a monolayer of biliary epithelial cells (cholangiocytes),in a 2D differentiation condition,but also form functional ductal structures in a 3D condition. Importantly,this EpCAM high spheroid based biliary tissue generation is significantly faster than other existing methods and does not require cell sorting. In addition,we show that a knock-in CK7 reporter human iPSC line generated by CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology greatly facilitates the analysis of biliary differentiation. This new ductal differentiation method will provide a more efficient method of obtaining bile duct cells and tissues,which may facilitate engineering of complete and functional liver tissue in the future. View Publication

Large scale purification of endothelial cells is of great interest as it could improve tissue transplantation,reperfusion of ischemic tissues and treatment of pathologies in which an endothelial cell dysfunction exists. In this study,we describe a novel genetic approach that selects for endothelial cells from differentiating embryonic stem (ES) cells. Our strategy is based on the establishment of ES-cell clones that carry an integrated puromycin resistance gene under the control of a vascular endothelium-specific promoter,tie-1. Using EGFP as a reporter gene,we first confirmed the endothelial specificity of the tie-1 promoter in the embryoid body model and in cells differentiated in 2D cultures. Subsequently,tie-1-EGFP ES cells were used as recipients for the tie-1-driven puror transgene. The resulting stable clones were expanded and differentiated for seven days in the presence of VEGF before puromycin selection. As expected,puromycin-resistant cells were positive for EGFP and also expressed several endothelial markers,including CD31,CD34,VEGFR-1,VEGFR-2,Tie-1,VE-cadherin and ICAM-2. Release from the puromycin selection resulted in the appearance of alpha-smooth muscle actin-positive cells. Such cells became more numerous when the population was cultured on laminin-1 or in the presence of TGF-beta1,two known inducers of smooth muscle cell differentiation. The hypothesis that endothelial cells or their progenitors may differentiate towards a smooth muscle cell phenotype was further supported by the presence of cells expressing both CD31 and alpha-smooth muscle actin markers. Finally,we show that purified endothelial cells can incorporate into the neovasculature of transplanted tumors in nude mice. Taken together,these results suggest that application of endothelial lineage selection to differentiating ES cells may become a useful approach for future pro-angiogenic and endothelial cell replacement therapies. View Publication

Types A and B Niemann-Pick disease (NPD) are lysosomal storage disorders resulting from loss of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) activity. We have used a knockout mouse model of NPD (ASMKO mice) to evaluate the effects of direct intracerebral transplantation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on the progression of neurological disease in this disorder. MSCs were transduced with a retroviral vector to overexpress ASM and were injected into the hippocampus and cerebellum of 3-week-old ASMKO pups. Transplanted cells migrated away from the injection sites and survived at least 6 months after transplantation. Seven of 8 treated mice,but none of the untreated controls,survived for textgreater or = 7 months after transplant. Survival times were greater in sex-matched than in sex-mismatched transplants. Transplantation significantly delayed the Purkinje cell loss that is characteristic of NPD,although the protective effect declined with distance from the injection site. Overall ASM activity in brain homogenates was low,but surviving Purkinje cells contained the retrovirally expressed human enzyme,and transplanted animals showed a reduction in cerebral sphingomyelin. These results reveal the potential of treating neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorders by intracerebral transplantation of bone marrow-derived MSCs. View Publication

2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD),an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC),can cause carcinogenesis,immunosuppression,and teratogenesis,through a ligand-activated transcription factor,the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). Despite remarkable recent advances in stem cell biology,the influence of TCDD on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs),which possess the ability to reconstitute long-term multilineage hematopoiesis,has not been well investigated. In this study we examined the influence of TCDD on HSCs enriched for CD34(-),c-kit(+),Sca-1(+),lineage negative (CD34-KSL) cells. The number of the CD34-KSL cells was found to be increased about four-fold upon a single oral administration of TCDD (40 micro g/kg body weight). Surprisingly,we found that these TCDD-treated cells almost lost long-term reconstitution activity. This defect was not present in AhR(-/-) mice. These findings suggest that modulation of AhR/ARNT system activity may have an effect on HSC function or survival. View Publication

Human stem cells derived from human fertilized oocytes,fetal primordial germ cells,umbilical cord blood,and adult tissues provide potential cell-based therapies for repair of degenerating or damaged tissues. However,the diversity of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens in the general population and the resultant risk of immune-mediated rejection complicates the allogenic use of established stem cells. We assessed an alternative approach,employing chemical activation of nonfertilized metaphase II oocytes for producing stem cells homozygous for MHC. By using F1 hybrid mice (H-2-B/D),we established stem cell lines homozygous for H-2-B and H-2-D,respectively. The undifferentiated cells retained a normal karyotype,expressed stage-specific embryonic antigen-1 and Oct4,and were positive for alkaline phosphatase and telomerase. Teratomatous growth of these cells displayed the development of a variety of tissue types encompassing all three germ layers. In addition,these cells demonstrated the potential for in vitro differentiation into endoderm,neuronal,and hematopoietic lineages. We also evaluated this homozygous stem cell approach in human tissue. Five unfertilized blastocysts were derived from a total of 25 human oocytes,and cells from one of the five hatched blastocysts proliferated and survived beyond two passages. Our studies demonstrate a plausible homozygous stem cell" approach for deriving pluripotent stem cells that can overcome the immune-mediated rejection response common in allotransplantation� View Publication

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors play an essential role in the formation and maintenance of the hematopoietic and vascular compartments. The VEGF receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) is expressed on a population of hematopoietic cells,although its role in hematopoiesis is still unclear. In this report,we have utilized a strategy to selectively activate VEGFR-2 and study its effects in primary bone marrow cells. We found that VEGFR-2 can maintain the hematopoietic progenitor population in mouse bone marrow cultured in the absence of exogenous cytokines. Maintenance of the hematopoietic progenitor population is due to increased cell survival with minimal effect on proliferation. Progenitor survival is mainly mediated by activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase/Akt pathway. Although VEGFR-2 also activated Erk1/2 mitogen-activated protein kinase,it did not induce cell proliferation,and blockade of this pathway only partially decreased VEGFR-2-mediated survival of hematopoietic progenitors. Thus,the role of VEGFR-2 in hematopoiesis is likely to maintain survival of hematopoietic progenitors through the activation of antiapoptotic pathways. View Publication

It has been proposed that bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells are distributed along an oxygen (O2) gradient,where stem cells reside in the most hypoxic areas and proliferating progenitors are found in O2-rich areas. However,the effects of hypoxia on human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have not been characterized. Our objective was to evaluate the functional and molecular responses of human BM progenitors and stem cells to hypoxic conditions. BM lineage-negative (Lin-) CD34+CD38- cells were cultured in serum-free medium under 1.5% O2 (hypoxia) or 20% O2 (normoxia) for 4 days. Using limiting dilution analysis,we demonstrate that the absolute number of SCID-repopulating cells (SRCs) increased by 5.8-fold in hypoxic cultures compared with normoxia,and by 4.2-fold compared with freshly isolated Lin-CD34+CD38- cells. The observed increase in BM-repopulating activity was associated with a preferential expansion of Lin-CD34+CD38- cells. We also demonstrate that,in response to hypoxia,hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha protein was stabilized,surface expression of angiogenic receptors was upregulated,and VEGF secretion increased in BM Lin-CD34+ cultures. The use of low O2 levels to enhance the survival and/or self-renewal of human BM HSCs in vitro represents an important advance and could have valuable clinical implications. View Publication

OVERVIEW: We show the existence of adult human mesenchymal progenitor cells (hMPCs) that can proliferate,in a cytokine-dependent manner,as individual cells in stirred suspension cultures (SSC) while maintaining their ability to form functional differentiated mesenchymal cell types. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ficolled human bone marrow (BM)-derived cells were grown in SSC (and adherent controls) in the presence and absence of exogenously added cytokines. Phenotypic,gene expression,and functional assays for hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic cell populations were used to kinetically track cell production. Limiting-dilution analysis was used to relate culture-produced cells to input cell populations. RESULTS: Cytokine cocktail influenced total and progenitor cell expansion,as well as the types of cells generated upon plating. Flow cytometric analysis of CD117,CD123,and CD45 expression showed that cytokine supplementation influenced SSC output. The concomitant growth of CD45(+) and CD45(-) cells in the cultures that exhibited the greatest hMPC expansions suggests that the growth of these cells may benefit from interactions with hematopoietic cells. Functional assays demonstrated that the SSC-derived cells (input CFU-O number: 1990+/-377) grown in the presence of SCF+IL-3 resulted,after 21 days,in the generation of a significantly greater number (ptextless0.05) of bone progenitors (33,700+/-8763 CFU-O) than similarly initiated adherent cultures (214+/-75 CFU-O). RT-PCR analysis confirmed that the SSC-derived cells grown in osteogenic conditions express bone-specific genes (Cbfa1/Runx2,bone sialoprotein,and osteocalcin). CONCLUSIONS: Our approach not only provides an alternative strategy to expand adult BM-derived nonhematopoietic progenitor cell numbers in a scalable and controllable bioprocess,but also questions established biological paradigms concerning the properties of connective-tissue stem and progenitor cells. View Publication

Human umbilical cord blood (UCB) contains high numbers of endothelial progenitors cells (EPCs) characterized by coexpression of CD34 and CD133 markers. Prior studies have shown that CD34+/CD133+ EPCs from the cord or peripheral blood (PB) can give rise to endothelial cells and induce angiogenesis in ischemic tissues. In the present study,it is shown that freshly isolated human cord blood CD34+ cells injected into ischemic adductor muscles gave rise to endothelial and,unexpectedly,to skeletal muscle cells in mice. In fact,the treated limbs exhibited enhanced arteriole length density and regenerating muscle fiber density. Under similar experimental conditions,CD34- cells did not enhance the formation of new arterioles and regenerating muscle fibers. In nonischemic limbs CD34+ cells increased arteriole length density but did not promote formation of new muscle fibers. Endothelial and myogenic differentiation ability was maintained in CD34+ cells after ex vivo expansion. Myogenic conversion of human cord blood CD34+ cells was also observed in vitro by coculture onto mouse myoblasts. These results show that human cord blood CD34+ cells differentiate into endothelial and skeletal muscle cells,thus providing an indication of human EPCs plasticity. The full text of this article is available online at http://www.circresaha.org. View Publication

Exposure of murine bone marrow (BM) cells to ionizing radiation (IR; 4 Gy) resulted in textgreater95% inhibition of the frequency of various day types of cobblestone area-forming cells in association with the induction of apoptosis in hematopoietic stem cell alike cells (Lin(-) ScaI(+) c-kit(+) cells; IR: 64.8 +/- 0.4% versus control: 20.4 +/- 0.5%; P textless 0.001) and progenitors (Lin(-) ScaI(-) c-kit(+) cells; IR: 46.2 +/- 1.4% versus control: 7.8 +/- 0.5%; P textless 0.001). Incubation of murine BM cells with busulfan (BU; 30 micro M) for 6 h also inhibited the cobblestone area-forming cell frequency but failed to cause a significant increase in apoptosis in these two types of hematopoietic cells. After 5 weeks of long-term BM cell culture,33% and 72% of hematopoietic cells survived IR- and BU-induced damage,respectively,as compared with control cells,but they could not form colony forming units-granulocyte macrophages. Moreover,these surviving cells expressed an increased level of senescence-associated beta-galactosidase,p16(Ink4a),and p19(Arf). These findings suggest that IR inhibits the function of hematopoietic stem cell alike cells and progenitors primarily by inducing apoptosis,whereas BU does so mainly by inducing premature senescence. In addition,induction of premature senescence in BM hematopoietic cells also contributes to IR-induced inhibition of their hematopoietic function. Interestingly,the induction of hematopoietic cell senescence by IR,but not by BU,was associated with an elevation in p53 and p21(Cip1/Waf1) expression. This suggests that IR induces hematopoietic cell senescence in a p53-p21(Cip1/Waf1)-dependent manner,whereas the induction of senescence by BU bypasses the p53-p21(Cip1/Waf1) pathway. View Publication

We studied the actions of geldanamycin (GA) and herbimycin A (HMA),inhibitors of the chaperone proteins Hsp90 and GRP94,on B chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells in vitro. Both drugs induced apoptosis of the majority of CLL isolates studied. Whereas exposure to 4-hour pulses of 30 to 100 nM GA killed normal B lymphocytes and CLL cells with similar dose responses,T lymphocytes from healthy donors as well as those present in the CLL isolates were relatively resistant. GA,but not HMA,showed a modest cytoprotective effect toward CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors from normal bone marrow. The ability of bone marrow progenitors to form hematopoietic colonies was unaffected by pulse exposures to GA. Both GA and HMA synergized with chlorambucil and fludarabine in killing a subset of CLL isolates. GA- and HMA-induced apoptosis was preceded by the up-regulation of the stress-responsive chaperones Hsp70 and BiP. Both ansamycins also resulted in down-regulation of Akt protein kinase,a modulator of cell survival. The relative resistance of T lymphocytes and of CD34+ bone marrow progenitors to GA coupled with its ability to induce apoptosis following brief exposures and to synergize with cytotoxic drugs warrant further investigation of ansamycins as potential therapeutic agents in CLL. View Publication

Osteoblasts are continually recruited from stem cell pools to maintain bone. Although their immediate precursor is a plastic-adherent mesenchymal stem cell able to generate tissues other than bone,increasing evidence suggests the existence of a more primitive cell that can differentiate to both hematopoietic and mesenchymal cells. We show here that the side population" (SP) of marrow stem cells� View Publication