技术资料

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from patients with neurodegenerative disease generally lack neuropathological confirmation,the gold standard for disease classification and grading of severity. The use of tissue with a definitive neuropathological diagnosis would be an ideal source for iPSCs. The challenge to this approach is that the majority of biobanked brain tissue was not meant for growing live cells,and thus was not frozen in the presence of cryoprotectants such as DMSO. PMID: 24398250 View Publication

Structural bone allografts are widely used in the clinic to treat critical sized bone defects,despite lacking the osteoinductive characteristics of live autografts. To address this,we generated revitalized structural allografts wrapped with mesenchymal stem/progenitor cell (MSC) sheets,which were produced by expanding primary syngenic bone marrow derived cells on temperature-responsive plates,as a tissue-engineered periosteum. In vitro assays demonstrated maintenance of the MSC phenotype in the sheets,suggesting that short-term culturing of MSC sheets is not detrimental. To test their efficacy in vivo,allografts wrapped with MSC sheets were transplanted into 4-mm murine femoral defects and compared to allografts with direct seeding of MSCs and allografts without cells. Evaluations consisted of X-ray plain radiography,3D microCT,histology,and biomechanical testing at 4- and 6-weeks post-surgery. Our findings demonstrate that MSC sheets induce prolonged cartilage formation at the graft-host junction and enhanced bone callus formation,as well as graft-host osteointegration. Moreover,a large periosteal callus was observed spanning the allografts with MSC sheets,which partially mimics live autograft healing. Finally,biomechanical testing showed a significant increase in the structural and functional properties of MSC sheet grafted femurs. Taken together,MSC sheets exhibit enhanced osteogenicity during critical sized bone defect repair,demonstrating the feasibility of this tissue engineering solution for massive allograft healing. View Publication

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are becoming mainstream tools to study mechanisms of development and disease. They have a broad range of applications in understanding disease processes,in vitro testing of novel therapies,and potential utility in regenerative medicine. Although the techniques for generating iPSCs are becoming more straightforward,scientists can expend considerable resources and time to establish this technology. A major hurdle is the accurate determination of valid iPSC-like colonies that can be selected for further cloning and characterization. In this study,we describe the use of a gammaretroviral vector encoding a fluorescent marker,mRFP1,to not only monitor the efficiency of initial transduction but also to identify putative iPSC colonies through silencing of mRFP1 gene as a consequence of successful reprogramming. View Publication

The hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) are a heterogeneous group of motorneuron diseases characterized by progressive spasticity and paresis of the lower limbs. Mutations in Spastic Gait 4 (SPG4),encoding spastin,are the most frequent cause of HSP. To understand how mutations in SPG4 affect human neurons,we generated human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from fibroblasts of two patients carrying a c.1684CtextgreaterT nonsense mutation and from two controls. These SPG4 and control hiPSCs were able to differentiate into neurons and glia at comparable efficiency. All known spastin isoforms were reduced in SPG4 neuronal cells. The complexity of SPG4 neurites was decreased,which was paralleled by an imbalance of axonal transport with less retrograde movement. Prominent neurite swellings with disrupted microtubules were present in SPG4 neurons at an ultrastructural level. While some of these swellings contain acetylated and detyrosinated tubulin,these tubulin modifications were unchanged in total cell lysates of SPG4 neurons. Upregulation of another microtubule-severing protein,p60 katanin,may partially compensate for microtubuli dynamics in SPG4 neurons. Overexpression of the M1 or M87 spastin isoforms restored neurite length,branching,numbers of primary neurites and reduced swellings in SPG4 neuronal cells. We conclude that neurite complexity and maintenance in HSP patient-derived neurons are critically sensitive to spastin gene dosage. Our data show that elevation of single spastin isoform levels is sufficient to restore neurite complexity and reduce neurite swellings in patient cells. Furthermore,our human model offers an ideal platform for pharmacological screenings with the goal to restore physiological spastin levels in SPG4 patients. View Publication

Recurrent chromosomal alterations have been repeatedly reported in cultured human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). The effects of these alterations on the capability of pluripotent cells to differentiate and on growth potential of their specific differentiated derivatives remain unclear. Here,we report that the hESC lines HUES-7 and -9 carrying multiple chromosomal alterations produce in vitro mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that show progressive growth arrest and enter senescence after 15 and 16 passages,respectively. There was no difference in their proliferative potential when compared with bone marrow-derived MSCs. Array comparative genomic hybridization analysis (aCGH) of hESCs and their mesenchymal derivatives revealed no significant differences in chromosomal alterations,suggesting that genetically altered hESCs are not selected out during differentiation. Our findings indicate that genetically unstable hESCs maintain their capacity to differentiate in vitro into MSCs,which exhibit an in vitro growth pattern of normal MSCs and not that of transformed cells. View Publication

Many studies have compared the genetic and epigenetic profiles of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and yet the picture remains unclear. To address this,we derived a population of neural precursor cells (NPCs) from the H1 (WA01) hESC line and generated isogenic iPSC lines by reprogramming. The gene expression and methylation profile of three lines were compared to the parental line and intermediate NPC population. We found no gene probe with expression that differed significantly between hESC and iPSC samples under undifferentiated or differentiated conditions. Analysis of the global methylation pattern also showed no significant difference between the two PSC populations. Both undifferentiated populations were distinctly different from the intermediate NPC population in both gene expression and methylation profiles. One point to note is that H1 is a male line and so extrapolation to female lines should be cautioned. However,these data confirm our previous findings that there are no significant differences between hESCs and hiPSCs at the gene expression or methylation level. View Publication

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) constitute a promising resource for use in cell-based therapies and a valuable in vitro model for studying early human development and disease. Despite significant advancements in the derivation of specific fates from hPSCs,the generation of skeletal muscle remains challenging and is mostly dependent on transgene expression. Here,we describe a method based on the use of a small-molecule GSK3?? inhibitor to derive skeletal muscle from several hPSC lines. We show that early GSK3?? inhibition is sufficient to create the conditions necessary for highly effective derivation of muscle cells. Moreover,we developed a strategy for stringent fluorescence-activated cell sorting-based purification of emerging PAX3+/PAX7+ muscle precursors that are able to differentiate in postsort cultures into mature myocytes. This transgene-free,efficient protocol provides an essential tool for producing myogenic cells for in vivo preclinical studies,in vitro screenings,and disease modeling. ?? 2013 The Authors. View Publication

The embryonic neuroepithelium gives rise to the entire central nervous system in vivo,making it an important tissue for developmental studies and a prospective cell source for regenerative applications. Current protocols for deriving homogenous neuroepithelial cultures from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) consist of either embryoid body-mediated neuralization followed by a manual isolation step or adherent differentiation using small molecule inhibitors. Here,we report that hPSCs maintained under chemically defined,feeder-independent,and xeno-free conditions can be directly differentiated into pure neuroepithelial cultures ([mt]90% Pax6(+)/N-cadherin(+) with widespread rosette formation) within 6 days under adherent conditions,without small molecule inhibitors,and using only minimalistic medium consisting of Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium/F-12,sodium bicarbonate,selenium,ascorbic acid,transferrin,and insulin (i.e.,E6 medium). Furthermore,we provide evidence that the defined culture conditions enable this high level of neural conversion in contrast to hPSCs maintained on mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). In addition,hPSCs previously maintained on MEFs could be rapidly converted to a neural compliant state upon transfer to these defined conditions while still maintaining their ability to generate all three germ layers. Overall,this fully defined and scalable protocol should be broadly useful for generating therapeutic neural cells for regenerative applications. View Publication

The fabrication of high-density polymer microarray is described,allowing the simultaneous and efficient evaluation of more than 7000 different polymers in a single-cellular-based screen. These high-density polymer arrays are applied in the search for synthetic substrates for hESCs culture. Up-scaling of the identified hit polymers enables long-term cellular cultivation and promoted successful stem-cell maintenance. View Publication

BACKGROUND: Gene delivery can potentially be used as a therapeutic for treating genetic diseases,including neurodegenerative diseases,as well as an enabling technology for regenerative medicine. A central challenge in many gene delivery applications is having a safe and effective delivery method. We evaluated the use of a biodegradable poly(beta-amino ester) nanoparticle-based nonviral protocol and compared this with an electroporation-based approach to deliver episomal plasmids encoding reprogramming factors for generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from human fibroblasts.backslashnbackslashnMETHODS: A polymer library was screened to identify the polymers most promising for gene delivery to human fibroblasts. Feeder-independent culturing protocols were developed for nanoparticle-based and electroporation-based reprogramming. The cells reprogrammed by both polymeric nanoparticle-based and electroporation-based nonviral methods were characterized by analysis of pluripotency markers and karyotypic stability. The hiPSC-like cells were further differentiated toward the neural lineage to test their potential for neurodegenerative retinal disease modeling.backslashnbackslashnRESULTS: 1-(3-aminopropyl)-4-methylpiperazine end-terminated poly(1,4-butanediol diacry-late-co-4-amino-1-butanol) polymer (B4S4E7) self-assembled with plasmid DNA to form nanoparticles that were more effective than leading commercially available reagents,including Lipofectamine® 2000,FuGENE® HD,and 25 kDa branched polyethylenimine,for nonviral gene transfer. B4S4E7 nanoparticles showed effective gene delivery to IMR-90 human primary fibroblasts and to dermal fibroblasts derived from a patient with retinitis pigmentosa,and enabled coexpression of exogenously delivered genes,as is needed for reprogramming. The karyotypically normal hiPSC-like cells generated by conventional electroporation,but not by poly(beta-amino ester) reprogramming,could be differentiated toward the neuronal lineage,specifically pseudostratified optic cups.backslashnbackslashnCONCLUSION: This study shows that certain nonviral reprogramming methods may not necessarily be safer than viral approaches and that maximizing exogenous gene expression of reprogramming factors is not sufficient to ensure successful reprogramming. View Publication

The identification of the trans-acting factors and cis-regulatory modules that are involved in human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) maintenance and differentiation is necessary to dissect the operating regulatory networks in these processes and thereby identify nodes where signal input will direct desired cell fate decisions in vitro or in vivo. To deconvolute these networks,we established a method to influence the differentiation state of hPSCs with a CRISPR-associated catalytically inactive dCas9 fused to an effector domain. In human embryonic stem cells,we find that the dCas9 effectors can exert positive or negative regulation on the expression of developmentally relevant genes,which can influence cell differentiation status when impinging on a key node in the regulatory network that governs the cell state. This system provides a platform for the interrogation of the underlying regulators governing specific differentiation decisions,which can then be employed to direct cellular differentiation down desired pathways. View Publication

High telomerase activity is a characteristic of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs),however,the regulation and maintenance of correct telomere length in hESCs is unclear. In this study we investigated telomere elongation in hESCs in vitro and found that telomeres lengthened from their derivation in blastocysts through early expansion,but stabilized at later passages. We report that the core unit of telomerase,hTERT,was highly expressed in hESCs in blastocysts and throughout long-term culture; furthermore,this was regulated in a Wnt-β-catenin-signaling-dependent manner. Our observations that the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathway was suppressed in hESCs and that hTERT knockdown partially inhibited telomere elongation,demonstrated that high telomerase activity was required for telomere elongation. We observed that chromatin modification through trimethylation of H3K9 and H4K20 at telomeric regions decreased during early culture. This was concurrent with telomere elongation,suggesting that epigenetic regulation of telomeric chromatin may influence telomerase function. By measuring telomere length in 96 hESC lines,we were able to establish that telomere length remained relatively stable at 12.02±1.01 kb during later passages (15-95). In contrast,telomere length varied in hESCs with genomic instability and hESC-derived teratomas. In summary,we propose that correct,stable telomere length may serve as a potential biomarker for genetically stable hESCs. View Publication