技术资料

The International Stem Cell Initiative analyzed 125 human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines and 11 induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines,from 38 laboratories worldwide,for genetic changes occurring during culture. Most lines were analyzed at an early and late passage. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis revealed that they included representatives of most major ethnic groups. Most lines remained karyotypically normal,but there was a progressive tendency to acquire changes on prolonged culture,commonly affecting chromosomes 1,12,17 and 20. DNA methylation patterns changed haphazardly with no link to time in culture. Structural variants,determined from the SNP arrays,also appeared sporadically. No common variants related to culture were observed on chromosomes 1,12 and 17,but a minimal amplicon in chromosome 20q11.21,including three genes expressed in human ES cells,ID1,BCL2L1 and HM13,occurred in textgreater20% of the lines. Of these genes,BCL2L1 is a strong candidate for driving culture adaptation of ES cells. View Publication

Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and hESC-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CM) hold great promise for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However the mechanobiological properties of hESC and hESC-CM remains elusive. In this paper,we examined the dynamic and static micromechanical properties of hESC and hESC-CM,by manipulating via optical tweezers at the single-cell level. Theoretical approaches were developed to model the dynamic and static mechanical responses of cells during optical stretching. Our experiments showed that the mechanical stiffness of differentiated hESC-CM increased after cardiac differentiation. Such stiffening could associate with increasingly organized myofibrillar assembly that underlines the functional characteristics of hESC-CM. In summary,our findings lay the ground work for using hESC-CMs as models to study mechanical and contractile defects in heart diseases. View Publication

Numerous matrices for the growth of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) in vitro have been described. However,their exact composition is typically unknown. Information on the components of these matrices will aid in the development of a fully defined growth surface for hESCs. These matrices typically consist of mixture of proteins present in a wide range of abundance making their characterization challenging. In this study,we performed the proteomic analysis of five previously uncharacterized matrices: CellStart,Human Basement Membrane Extract (Human BME),StemXVivo,Bridge Human Extracellular Matrix (BridgeECM),and mouse embryonic fibroblast conditioned matrix (MEF-CMTX). Based on a proteomics protocol optimized using lysates from HeLa cells,we undertook the analysis of the five complex extracellular matrix (ECM) samples using a combination of strong anion and cation exchange chromatography and SDS-PAGE. For each of these matrices,we identify numerous proteins,indicating their complex nature. We also compared these results with a similar proteomics analysis of the growth matrix,Matrigel™. From these analyses,we observed that fibronectin is a primary component of nearly all hESC supportive matrices. This observation led to the investigation of the suitability of fibronectin as a defined ECM for the growth of hESCs. We found that fibronectin promotes the maintenance of pluripotent H9 and CA1 hESCs in an undifferentiated state using mTeSR1 medium. This finding validates the utility of characterizing matrices used for hESC growth in revealing ECM components required for culturing hESCs in a universally applicable defined system. View Publication

Insertion of a transgene into a defined genomic locus in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) is crucial in preventing random integration-induced insertional mutagenesis,and can possibly enable persistent transgene expression during hESC expansion and in their differentiated progenies. Here,we employed homologous recombination in hESCs to introduce heterospecific loxP sites into the AAVS1 locus,a site with an open chromatin structure that allows averting transgene silencing phenomena. We then performed Cre recombinase mediated cassette exchange using baculoviral vectors to insert a transgene into the modified AAVS1 locus. Targeting efficiency in the master hESC line with the loxP-docking sites was up to 100%. Expression of the inserted transgene lasted for at least 20 passages during hESC expansion and was retained in differentiated cells derived from the genetically modified hESCs. Thus,this study demonstrates the feasibility of genetic manipulation at the AAVS1 locus with homologous recombination and using viral transduction in hESCs to facilitate recombinase-mediated cassette exchange. The method developed will be useful for repeated gene targeting at a defined locus of the hESC genome. View Publication

The limited ability of the heart to regenerate has prompted development of new systems to produce cardiomyocytes for therapeutics. While differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into cardiomyocytes has been well documented,the process remains inefficient and/or expensive,and progress would be facilitated by better understanding the early genetic events that cause cardiac specification. By maintaining a transgenic cardiac-specific MYH6-monomeric red fluorescent protein (mRFP) reporter hESC line in conditions that promote pluripotency,we tested the ability of combinations of 15 genes to induce cardiac specification. Screening identified GATA4 plus TBX5 as the minimum requirement to activate the cardiac gene regulatory network and produce mRFP(+) cells,while a combination of GATA4,TBX5,NKX2.5,and BAF60c (GTNB) was necessary to generate beating cardiomyocytes positive for cTnI and α-actinin. Including the chemotherapeutic agent,Ara-C,from day 10 of induced differentiation enriched for cTnI/α-actinin double positive cells to 45%. Transient expression of GTNB for 5-7 days was necessary to activate the cardiogenesis through progenitor intermediates in a manner consistent with normal heart development. This system provides a route to test the effect of different factors on human cardiac differentiation and will be useful in understanding the network failures that underlie disease phenotypes. View Publication

Cell-based therapies have generated great interest in the scientific and medical communities,and stem cells in particular are very appealing for regenerative medicine,drug screening and other biomedical applications. These unspecialized cells have unlimited self-renewal capacity and the remarkable ability to produce mature cells with specialized functions,such as blood cells,nerve cells or cardiac muscle. However,the actual number of cells that can be obtained from available donors is very low. One possible solution for the generation of relevant numbers of cells for several applications is to scale-up the culture of these cells in vitro. This review describes recent developments in the cultivation of stem cells in bioreactors,particularly considerations regarding critical culture parameters,possible bioreactor configurations,and integration of novel technologies in the bioprocess development stage. We expect that this review will provide updated and detailed information focusing on the systematic production of stem cell products in compliance with regulatory guidelines,while using robust and cost-effective approaches. View Publication

Microfluidic systems create significant opportunities to establish highly controlled microenvironmental conditions for screening pluripotent stem cell fate. However,since cell fate is crucially dependent on this microenvironment,it remains unclear as to whether continual perfusion of culture medium supports pluripotent stem cell maintenance in feeder-free,chemically defined conditions,and further,whether optimum perfusion conditions exist for subsequent use of human embryonic stem cell (hESCs) in other microfludic systems. To investigate this,we designed microbioreactors based on resistive flow to screen hESCs under a linear range of flowrates. We report that at low rates (conditions where glucose transport is convection-limited with Péclet number textless1),cells are affected by apparent nutrient depletion and waste accumulation,evidenced by reduced cell expansion and altered morphology. At higher rates,cells are spontaneously washed out,and display morphological changes which may be indicative of early-stage differentiation. However,between these thresholds exists a narrow range of flowrates in which hESCs expand comparably to the equivalent static culture system,with regular morphology and maintenance of the pluripotency marker TG30 in textgreater95% of cells over 7 days. For MEL1 hESCs the optimum flowrate also coincided with the time-averaged medium exchange rate in static cultures,which may therefore provide a good first estimate of appropriate perfusion rates. Overall,we demonstrate hESCs can be maintained in microbioreactors under continual flow for up to 7 days,a critical outcome for the future development of microbioreactor-based screening systems and assays for hESC culture. View Publication

Self-renewal is a complex biological process necessary for maintaining the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Recent studies have used global proteomic techniques to identify proteins that associate with the master regulators Oct4,Nanog and Sox2 in ESCs or in ESCs during the early stages of differentiation. Through an unbiased proteomic screen,Banf1 was identified as a Sox2-associated protein. Banf1 has been shown to be essential for worm and fly development but,until now,its role in mammalian development and ESCs has not been explored. In this study,we examined the effect of knocking down Banf1 on ESCs. We demonstrate that the knockdown of Banf1 promotes the differentiation of mouse ESCs and decreases the survival of both mouse and human ESCs. For mouse ESCs,we demonstrate that knocking down Banf1 promotes their differentiation into cells that exhibit markers primarily associated with mesoderm and trophectoderm. Interestingly,knockdown of Banf1 disrupts the survival of human ESCs without significantly reducing the expression levels of the master regulators Sox2,Oct4 and Nanog or inducing the expression of markers of differentiation. Furthermore,we determined that the knockdown of Banf1 alters the cell cycle distribution of both human and mouse ESCs by causing an uncharacteristic increase in the proportion of cells in the G2-M phase of the cell cycle. View Publication

Herpes simplex type 1 (HSV-1) amplicon vectors possess a number of features that make them excellent vectors for the delivery of transgenes into stem cells. HSV-1 amplicon vectors are capable of efficiently transducing both dividing and nondividing cells and since the virus is quite large,152 kb,it is of sufficient size to allow for incorporation of entire genomic DNA loci with native promoters. HSV-1 amplicon vectors can also be used to incorporate and deliver to cells a variety of sequences that allow extrachromosomal retention. These elements offer advantages over integrating vectors as they avoid transgene silencing and insertional mutagenesis. The construction of amplicon vectors carrying extrachromosomal retention elements,their packaging into HSV-1 viral particles,and the use of HSV-1 amplicons for stem cell transduction will be described. View Publication

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can be maintained as undifferentiated cells in vitro and induced to differentiate into a variety of somatic cell types. Thus,hESCs provide a source of differentiated cell types that could be used to replace diseased cells of a tissue. The efficient cryopreservation of hESCs is important for establishing effective stem cell banks,however,conventional slow freezing methods usually lead to low rates of recovery after thawing cells and their replating in culture. We have established a method for recovering cryopreserved hESCs using pinacidil and compared it to a method that employs the ROCK inhibitor Y-27632. We show that pinacidil is similar to Y-27632 in promoting survival of hESCs after cryopreservation. The cells exhibited normal hESC morphology,retained a normal karyotype,and expressed characteristic hESC markers (OCT4,SSEA3,SSEA4 and TRA-1-60). Moreover,the cells retained the capacity to differentiate into derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers as demonstrated by differentiation through embryoid body formation. Pinacidil has been used for many years as a vasodilator drug to treat hypertension and its manufacture and traceability are well defined. It is also considerably cheaper than Y-27632. Thus,the use of pinacidil offers an efficient method for recovery of cryopreserved dissociated human ES cells. View Publication

Schizophrenia has been defined as a neurodevelopmental disease that causes changes in the process of thoughts,perceptions,and emotions,usually leading to a mental deterioration and affective blunting. Studies have shown altered cell respiration and oxidative stress response in schizophrenia; however,most of the knowledge has been acquired from postmortem brain analyses or from nonneural cells. Here we describe that neural cells,derived from induced pluripotent stem cells generated from skin fibroblasts of a schizophrenic patient,presented a twofold increase in extramitochondrial oxygen consumption as well as elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS),when compared to controls. This difference in ROS levels was reverted by the mood stabilizer valproic acid. Our model shows evidence that metabolic changes occurring during neurogenesis are associated with schizophrenia,contributing to a better understanding of the development of the disease and highlighting potential targets for treatment and drug screening. View Publication

Many human diseases share a developmental origin that manifests during childhood or maturity. Aneuploid syndromes are caused by supernumerary or reduced number of chromosomes and represent an extreme example of developmental disease,as they have devastating consequences before and after birth. Investigating how alterations in gene dosage drive these conditions is relevant because it might help treat some clinical aspects. It may also provide explanations as to how quantitative differences in gene expression determine phenotypic diversity and disease susceptibility among natural populations. Here,we aimed to produce induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines that can be used to improve our understanding of aneuploid syndromes. We have generated iPSCs from monosomy X [Turner syndrome (TS)],trisomy 8 (Warkany syndrome 2),trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome) and partial trisomy 11;22 (Emanuel syndrome),using either skin fibroblasts from affected individuals or amniocytes from antenatal diagnostic tests. These cell lines stably maintain the karyotype of the donors and behave like embryonic stem cells in all tested assays. TS iPSCs were used for further studies including global gene expression analysis and tissue-specific directed differentiation. Multiple clones displayed lower levels of the pseudoautosomal genes ASMTL and PPP2R3B than the controls. Moreover,they could be transformed into neural-like,hepatocyte-like and heart-like cells,but displayed insufficient up-regulation of the pseudoautosomal placental gene CSF2RA during embryoid body formation. These data support that abnormal organogenesis and early lethality in TS are not caused by a tissue-specific differentiation blockade,but rather involves other abnormalities including impaired placentation. View Publication