搜索结果: 'methocult media formulations for human hematopoietic cells serum containing'

Activation of natural killer (NK) cell cytotoxicity requires adhesion and formation of a conjugate with a susceptible target cell,followed by actin polymerization,and polarization of the microtubule organizing center (MTOC) and cytolytic granules to the NK cell immune synapse. Here,by using the YTS NK cell line as a model,CD28 is shown to be an activating receptor. It signals cytotoxicity in a process dependent on phosphoinositide-3 kinase activation,leading to sustained extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (ERK2) phosphorylation. ERK and phospho-ERK localize to microtubule filaments. Neither conjugation with targets nor actin polymerization is affected by blocking ERK2 activation. However,both polarization of the MTOC and cytolytic granules to the synaptic region and NK cell cytotoxicity are strongly reduced by blocking ERK2 activation. A role for the CD28/CD80 interaction in cytotoxicity of human peripheral NK cells also was established. By contrast,lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1) ligation transduces only a transient ERK2 activation and fails to induce killing in YTS cells. Thus,in YTS cells,a CD28 signal is used to polarize the MTOC and cytolytic granules to the NK cell immune synapse by stimulating sustained ERK2 activation. View Publication

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Hematopoiesis depends on the association of hematopoietic stem cells with stromal cells that constitute the hematopoietic microenvironment. The in vitro development of the endothelial cell from umbilical cord blood (UCB) is not well established and has met very limited success. In this study,UCB CD34(+) cells were cultured for 5 weeks in a stroma-free liquid culture system using thrombopoietin,flt3 ligand,and granulocyte-colony stimulating factor. By week 4-5,we found that firmly adherent fibroblast-like cells were established. These cells showed characteristics of endothelial cells expressing von Willebrand factor,human vascular cell adhesion molecule-1,human intracellular adhesion molecule-1,human CD31,E-selectin,and human macrophage. Furthermore,when comparing an ex vivo system without an established endothelial monolayer to an ex vivo system with an established endothelial monolayer,better expansion of total nucleated cells,CD34(+) cells,and colony-forming units (CFUs)-granulocyte-macrophage and CFUs-granulocyte-erythroid-megakaryocyte-macrophage were found during culture. This phenomenon was in part due to the fact that a significant reduction of apoptotic fractions was found in the CD34(+) cells,which were cultured on the adherent monolayer for up to 5 weeks. To gather quantitative data on the number of endothelial cells derived from a given number of CD34 cells,we performed limiting dilution assay by using Poisson distribution: the number of tested cells (linear scale) producing a 37% negative culture (logarithmic scale) is the number of cells containing one endothelial cell. By this method,one endothelial cell may be found from 314 CD34(+) cells after 5 weeks of culture. These results suggest that the UCB CD34(+) cell fraction contains endothelial cell precursors,establishing the hematopoietic microenvironment and providing the beneficial effects through downregulating apoptosis on UCB expansion protocols. These observations may provide insight for future cellular therapy or graft engineering. View Publication

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are being used increasingly to complement their embryonic counterparts to understand and develop the therapeutic potential of pluripotent cells. Our objectives were to identify an efficient cardiac differentiation protocol for human iPS cells as monolayers,and demonstrate that the resulting cardiac progenitors could provide a therapeutic benefit in a rodent model of myocardial infarction. Herein,we describe a 14-day protocol for efficient cardiac differentiation of human iPS cells as a monolayer,which routinely yielded a mixed population in which over 50% were cardiomyocytes,endothelium,or smooth muscle cells. When differentiating,cardiac progenitors from day 6 of this protocol were injected into the peri-infarct region of the rat heart; after coronary artery ligation and reperfusion,we were able to show that human iPS cell-derived cardiac progenitor cells engrafted,differentiated into cardiomyocytes and smooth muscle,and persisted for at least 10 weeks postinfarct. Hearts injected with iPS-derived cells showed a nonsignificant trend toward protection from decline in function after myocardial infarction,as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging at 10 weeks,such that the ejection fraction at 10 weeks in iPS treated hearts was 62%±4%,compared to that of control infarcted hearts at 45%±9% (Ptextless0.2). In conclusion,we demonstrated efficient cardiac differentiation of human iPS cells that gave rise to progenitors that were retained within the infarcted rat heart,and reduced remodeling of the heart after ischemic damage. View Publication

Recent genomic approaches have revealed that the repertoire of RNA Pol III-transcribed genes varies in different human cell types,and that this variation is likely determined by a combination of the chromatin landscape,cell-specific DNA-binding transcription factors,and collaboration with RNA Pol II. Although much is known about this regulation in differentiated human cells,there is presently little understanding of this aspect of the Pol III system in human ES cells. Here,we determine the occupancy profiles of Pol III components in human H1 ES cells,and also induced pluripotent cells,and compare to known profiles of chromatin,transcription factors,and RNA expression. We find a relatively large fraction of the Pol III repertoire occupied in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). In ES cells we find clear correlations between Pol III occupancy and active chromatin. Interestingly,we find a highly significant fraction of Pol III-occupied genes with adjacent binding events by pluripotency factors in ES cells,especially NANOG. Notably,in human ES cells we find H3K27me3 adjacent to but not overlapping many active Pol III loci. We observe in all such cases,a peak of H3K4me3 and/or RNA Pol II,between the H3K27me3 and Pol III binding peaks,suggesting that H3K4me3 and Pol II activity may “insulate�? Pol III from neighboring repressive H3K27me3. Further,we find iPSCs have a larger Pol III repertoire than their precursors. Finally,the active Pol III genome in iPSCs is not completely reprogrammed to a hESC like state and partially retains the transcriptional repertoire of the precursor. Together,our correlative results are consistent with Pol III binding and activity in human ES cells being enabled by active/permissive chromatin that is shaped in part by the pluripotency network of transcription factors and RNA Pol II activity. View Publication

Retinal degenerative diseases are among the leading causes of blindness worldwide,and cell replacement is considered as a promising therapeutic. However,the resources of seed cells are scarce. To further explore this type of therapy,we adopted a culture system that could harvest a substantial quantity of retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) within a relatively short period of time. Furthermore,we transplanted these RPCs into the subretinal spaces of Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rats. We quantified the thickness of the treated rats' outer nuclear layers (ONLs) and explored the visual function via electroretinography (ERG). It was found that the differentiated cells expressed RPC markers and photoreceptor progenitor markers. The transplanted RPCs survived for at least 12 weeks,resulting in beneficial effects on the morphology of the host retina,and led to a significant improvement in the visual function of the treated animals. These therapeutic effects suggest that the hESCs-derived RPCs could delay degeneration of the retina and partially restore visual function. View Publication

Zebularine (2(1H)-pyrimidinone riboside,Zeb),a synthetic analogue of cytidine that is a potent inhibitor of cytidine deaminase,has been recently identified as a general inhibitor of DNA methylation. This inhibition of DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) is hypothesized to be mechanism-based and result from formation of a covalent complex between the enzyme and zebularine-substituted DNA. Metabolic activation of Zeb thus requires that it be phosphorylated and incorporated into DNA. We have quantitatively assessed the phosphorylation and DNA incorporation of Zeb in T24 cells using 2-[(14)C]-Zeb in conjunction with gradient anion-exchange HPLC and selected enzymatic and spectroscopic analyses. The corresponding 5'-mono-,di- and triphosphates of Zeb were readily formed in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Two additional Zeb-containing metabolites were tentatively identified as diphosphocholine (Zeb-DP-Chol) and diphosphoethanolamine adducts. Intracellular concentrations of Zeb-TP and Zeb-DP-Chol were similar and greatly exceeded those of other metabolites. DNA incorporation occurred but was surpassed by that of RNA by at least seven-fold. Equivalent levels and similar intracellular metabolic patterns were also observed in the Molt-4 (human T-lymphoblasts) and MC38 (murine colon carcinoma) cell lines. For male BALB/c nu/nu mice implanted s.c. with the EJ6 variant of T24 bladder carcinoma and treated i.p. with 500mg/kg 2-[(14)C]-Zeb,the in vivo phosphorylation pattern of Zeb in tumor tissue examined 24h after drug administration was similar to that observed in vitro. The complex metabolism of Zeb and its limited DNA incorporation suggest that these are the reasons why it is less potent than either 5-azacytidine or 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine and requires higher doses for equivalent inhibition of DNMT. View Publication

BACKGROUND AIMS Heart failure therapy with human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived cardiomyocytes (hCM) has been limited by the low rate of spontaneous hCM differentiation. As others have shown that p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38MAPK) directs neurogenesis from mouse embryonic stem cells,we investigated whether the p38MAPK inhibitor,SB203580,might influence hCM differentiation. METHODS We treated differentiating hESC with SB203580 at specific time-points,and used flow cytometry,immunocytochemistry,quantitative real-time (RT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR),teratoma formation and transmission electron microscopy to evaluate cardiomyocyte formation. RESULTS We observed that the addition of inhibitor resulted in 2.1-fold enrichment of spontaneously beating human embryoid bodies (hEB) at 21 days of differentiation,and that 25% of treated cells expressed cardiac-specific α-myosin heavy chain. This effect was dependent on the stage of differentiation at which the inhibitor was introduced. Immunostaining and teratoma formation assays demonstrated that the inhibitor did not affect hESC pluripotency; however,treated hESC gave rise to hCM exhibiting increased expression of sarcomeric proteins,including cardiac troponin T,myosin light chain and α-myosin heavy chain. This was consistent with significantly increased numbers of myofibrillar bundles and the appearance of nascent Z-bodies at earlier time-points in treated hCM. Treated hEB also demonstrated a normal karyotype by array comparative genomic hybridization and viability in vivo following injection into mouse myocardium. CONCLUSIONS These studies demonstrate that p38MAPK inhibition accelerates directed hCM differentiation from hESC,and that this effect is developmental stage-specific. The use of this inhibitor should improve our ability to generate hESC-derived hCM for cell-based therapy. View Publication

Realization of clinical potential of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in bone regenerative medicine requires development of simple and safe biomaterials for expansion of hPSCs followed by directing their lineage commitment to osteoblasts. In the present study,a chemically defined peptide-decorated polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibrous microenvironment was prepared through electrospinning technology and subsequent conjugation with vitronectin peptide to promote the culture and osteogenic potential of hPSCs in vitro. The results indicated that hPSCs successfully proliferated and maintained their pluripotency on the biointerface of peptide-conjugated nanofibers without Matrigel under defined conditions. Moreover,the prepared niche exhibited an appealing ability in promoting directed differentiation of hPSCs to osteoblastic phenotype without embryoid body formation step,determined from the cell morphological alteration,alkaline phosphate activity,and osteogenesis-related gene expression,as well as protein production. Such well-defined,xeno-free,and safe nanofiber scaffolds that allow the survival and facilitate osteo-differentiation of hPSCs provide a novel platform for hPSCs differentiation via cell-nanofiber interplay,and possess great value in accelerating the translational perspectives of hPSCs in bone tissue engineering. View Publication

Predictive toxicology using stem cells or their derived tissues has gained increasing importance in biomedical and pharmaceutical research. Here,we show that toxicity category prediction by support vector machines (SVMs),which uses qRT-PCR data from 20 categorized chemicals based on a human embryonic stem cell (hESC) system,is improved by the adoption of gene networks,in which network edge weights are added as feature vectors when noisy qRT-PCR data fail to make accurate predictions. The accuracies of our system were 97.5-100% for three toxicity categories: neurotoxins (NTs),genotoxic carcinogens (GCs) and non-genotoxic carcinogens (NGCs). For two uncategorized chemicals,bisphenol-A and permethrin,our system yielded reasonable results: bisphenol-A was categorized as an NGC,and permethrin was categorized as an NT; both predictions were supported by recently published papers. Our study has two important features: (i) as the first study to employ gene networks without using conventional quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) as input data for SVMs to analyze toxicogenomics data in an hESC validation system,it uses additional information of gene-to-gene interactions to significantly increase prediction accuracies for noisy gene expression data; and (ii) using only undifferentiated hESCs,our study has considerable potential to predict late-onset chemical toxicities,including abnormalities that occur during embryonic development. View Publication