技术资料

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) secrete essential autocrine factors that are removed along with toxic metabolites when the growth medium is exchanged daily. In this study,after determining the minimum inhibitory level of lactic acid for hiPSCs,a medium refining system was constructed by which toxic metabolites were removed from used culture medium and autocrine factors as well as other growth factors were recycled. Specifically,about 87 % of the basic fibroblast growth factor and 80 % of transforming growth factor beta 1 were retained in the refined medium after dialysis. The refined medium efficiently potentiated the proliferation of hiPS cells in adherent culture. When the refining system was used to refresh medium in suspension culture,a final cell density of (1.1 ± 0.1) × 10(6) cells mL(-1) was obtained,with 99.5 ± 0.2 % OCT 3/4 and 78.3 ± 1.1 % TRA-1-60 expression,on day 4 of culture. These levels of expression were similar to those observed in the conventional suspension culture. With this method,culture medium refinement by dialysis was established to remove toxic metabolites,recycle autocrine factors as well as other growth factors,and reduce the use of macromolecules for the expansion of hiPSCs in suspension culture. View Publication

Autosomal dominant vitreoretinochoroidopathy (ADVIRC) is a rare,early-onset retinal dystrophy characterised by distinct bands of circumferential pigmentary degeneration in the peripheral retina and developmental eye defects. ADVIRC is caused by mutations in the Bestrophin1 (BEST1) gene,which encodes a transmembrane protein thought to function as an ion channel in the basolateral membrane of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. Previous studies suggest that the distinct ADVIRC phenotype results from alternative splicing of BEST1 pre-mRNA. Here,we have used induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology to investigate the effects of an ADVIRC associated BEST1 mutation (c.704T textgreater C,p.V235A) in patient-derived iPSC-RPE. We found no evidence of alternate splicing of the BEST1 transcript in ADVIRC iPSC-RPE,however in patient-derived iPSC-RPE,BEST1 was expressed at the basolateral membrane and the apical membrane. During human eye development we show that BEST1 is expressed more abundantly in peripheral RPE compared to central RPE and is also expressed in cells of the developing retina. These results suggest that higher levels of mislocalised BEST1 expression in the periphery,from an early developmental stage,could provide a mechanism that leads to the distinct clinical phenotype observed in ADVIRC patients. View Publication

Human neocortex expansion likely contributed to the remarkable cognitive abilities of humans. This expansion is thought to primarily reflect differences in proliferation versus differentiation of neural progenitors during cortical development. Here,we have searched for such differences by analysing cerebral organoids from human and chimpanzees using immunohistochemistry,live imaging,and single-cell transcriptomics. We find that the cytoarchitecture,cell type composition,and neurogenic gene expression programs of humans and chimpanzees are remarkably similar. Notably,however,live imaging of apical progenitor mitosis uncovered a lengthening of prometaphase-metaphase in humans compared to chimpanzees that is specific to proliferating progenitors and not observed in non-neural cells. Consistent with this,the small set of genes more highly expressed in human apical progenitors points to increased proliferative capacity,and the proportion of neurogenic basal progenitors is lower in humans. These subtle differences in cortical progenitors between humans and chimpanzees may have consequences for human neocortex evolution. View Publication

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) exhibit diverse functions,including regulation of development. Here,we combine genome-wide mapping of SMAD3 occupancy with expression analysis to identify lncRNAs induced by activin signaling during endoderm differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). We find that DIGIT is divergent to Goosecoid (GSC) and expressed during endoderm differentiation. Deletion of the SMAD3-occupied enhancer proximal to DIGIT inhibits DIGIT and GSC expression and definitive endoderm differentiation. Disruption of the gene encoding DIGIT and depletion of the DIGIT transcript reveal that DIGIT is required for definitive endoderm differentiation. In addition,we identify the mouse ortholog of DIGIT and show that it is expressed during development and promotes definitive endoderm differentiation of mouse ESCs. DIGIT regulates GSC in trans,and activation of endogenous GSC expression is sufficient to rescue definitive endoderm differentiation in DIGIT-deficient hESCs. Our study defines DIGIT as a conserved noncoding developmental regulator of definitive endoderm. View Publication

Zoonotic A(H7N9) avian influenza viruses emerged in China in 2013 and continue to be a threat to human public health,having infected over 800 individuals with a mortality rate approaching 40%. Treatment options for people infected with A(H7N9) include the use of neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors. However,like other influenza viruses,A(H7N9) can become resistant to these drugs. The use of monoclonal antibodies is a rapidly developing strategy for controlling influenza virus infection. Here we generated a murine monoclonal antibody (3c10-3) directed against the NA of A(H7N9) and show that prophylactic systemic administration of 3c10-3 fully protected mice from lethal challenge with wild-type A/Anhui/1/2013 (H7N9). Further,post-infection treatment with a single systemic dose of 3c10-3 at either 24,48 or 72 h post A(H7N9) challenge resulted in both dose- and time-dependent protection of up to 100% of mice,demonstrating therapeutic potential for 3c10-3. Epitope mapping revealed that 3c10-3 binds near the enzyme active site of NA,and functional characterization showed that 3c10-3 inhibits the enzyme activity of NA and restricts the cell-to-cell spread of the virus in cultured cells. Affinity analysis also revealed that 3c10-3 binds equally well to recombinant NA of wild-type A/Anhui/1/2013 and to a variant NA carrying a R289K mutation known to infer NAI resistance. These results suggest that 3c10-3 has the potential to be used as a therapeutic to treat A(H7N9) infections either as an alternative to,or in combination with,current NA antiviral inhibitors. View Publication

Functional hepatocytes derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have potential as tools for predicting drug-induced hepatotoxicity in the early phases of drug development. However,the propensity of hPSC lines to differentiate into specific lineages is reported to differ. The ability to predict low propensity of hPSCs to differentiate into hepatocytes would facilitate the selection of useful hPSC clones and substantially accelerate development of hPSC-derived hepatocytes for pharmaceutical research. In this study,we compared the expression of genes associated with hepatic differentiation in five hPSC lines including human ES cell line,H9,which is known to differentiate into hepatocytes,and an hPSC line reported with a poor propensity for hepatic differentiation. Genes distinguishing between undifferentiated hPSCs,hPSC-derived hepatoblast-like differentiated cells,and primary human hepatocytes were drawn by two-way cluster analysis. The order of expression levels of genes in undifferentiated hPSCs was compared with that in hPSC-derived hepatoblast-like cells. Three genes were selected as predictors of low propensity for hepatic differentiation. Expression of these genes was investigated in 23 hPSC clones. Review of representative cells by induction of hepatic differentiation suggested that low prediction scores were linked with low hepatic differentiation. Thus,our model using gene expression ranking and bioinformatic analysis could reasonably predict poor differentiation propensity of hPSC lines. View Publication

The ability of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to proliferate indefinitely is attributed to its high telomerase activity and associated long telomere. However,factors regulating telomere length in hESCs remain largely uncharacterized. The aims of this study were,to identify factors which modulate telomere length of hESCs,and to determine if the telomere length of hESCs influences cellular senescence of its differentiated progeny cells. Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene expression,telomerase activity and telomere length of hESCs cultured in different culture systems were compared. Genetically identical hESCs of different telomere lengths were differentiated into fibroblasts simultaneously,and the population doubling and cellular senescence levels were determined. We found that telomere lengths were significantly different in different culture systems and Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) upregulated TERT expression,telomerase activity and telomere length via Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in hESCs in a significant manner. We also provide evidence that fibroblast differentiated from hESCs with longer telomere exhibited significant more population doublings and longer life span than those derived from hESCs with shorter telomeres. Thus,FGF-2 levels in hESCs culture systems can be manipulated to generate cells with longer telomere which would be advantageous in the applications of hESCs in regenerative medicine. View Publication

Due to their broad differentiation potential,pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) offer a promising approach for generating relevant cellular models for various applications. While human PSC-based cellular models are already advanced,similar systems for non-human primates (NHPs) are still lacking. However,as NHPs are the most appropriate animals for evaluating the safety of many novel pharmaceuticals,the availability of in vitro systems would be extremely useful to bridge the gap between cellular and animal models. Here,we present a NHP in vitro endothelial cell system using induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs) from Cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis). Based on an adapted protocol for human IPSCs,we directly differentiated macaque IPSCs into endothelial cells under chemically defined conditions. The resulting endothelial cells can be enriched using immuno-magnetic cell sorting and display endothelial marker expression and function. RNA sequencing revealed that the differentiation process closely resembled vasculogenesis. Moreover,we showed that endothelial cells derived from macaque and human IPSCs are highly similar with respect to gene expression patterns and key endothelial functions,such as inflammatory responses. These data demonstrate the power of IPSC differentiation technology to generate defined cell types for use as translational in vitro models to compare cell type-specific responses across species. View Publication

OBJECTIVE To elucidate the genetic background of a patient with neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease (NOMID) with no NLRP3 mutation. METHODS A Japanese male child diagnosed as having NOMID was studied. The patient did not have any NLRP3 mutation,even as low-frequency mosaicism. We performed whole-exome sequencing on the patient and his parents. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were established from the patient's fibroblasts. The iPSCs were then differentiated into monocyte lineage to evaluate the cytokine profile. RESULTS We established multiple iPSC clones from a patient with NOMID and incidentally found that the phenotypes of monocytes from iPSC clones were heterogeneous and could be grouped into disease and normal phenotypes. Because each iPSC clone was derived from a single somatic cell,we hypothesized that the patient had somatic mosaicism of an interleukin-1β-related gene. Whole-exome sequencing of both representative iPSC clones and the patient's blood revealed a novel heterozygous NLRC4 mutation,p.T177A (c.529AtextgreaterG),as a specific mutation in diseased iPSC clones. Knockout of the NLRC4 gene using the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat/Cas9 system in a mutant iPSC clone abrogated the pathogenic phenotype. CONCLUSION Our findings indicate that the patient has somatic mosaicism of a novel NLRC4 mutation. To our knowledge,this is the first case showing that somatic mutation of NLRC4 causes autoinflammatory symptoms compatible with NOMID. The present study demonstrates the significance of prospective genetic screening combined with iPSC-based phenotype dissection for individualized diagnoses. View Publication

Peripheral blood was collected from a 1-year-old male patient with an X-linked recessive mutation of Iduronate 2-sulfatase (IDS) gene (NM000202.7(IDS):c.85CtextgreaterT) causing MPS II (OMIM 309900). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were reprogrammed by lentiviral delivery of a self-silencing hOKSM polycistronic vector. The pluripotency of the iPSC line was confirmed by the expression of pluripotency-associated markers and in vitro spontaneous differentiation towards the 3 germ layers. The iPSC line showed normal karyotype. The cell line offers a good platform to study MPS II pathophysiology,for drug testing,early biomarker discovery and gene therapy studies. View Publication

Peripheral blood was collected from a 39-year-old unaffected female carrier of an X-linked recessive mutation of Iduronate 2-sulfatase gene (NM000202.7(IDS):c.85CtextgreaterT) causing MPS II (OMIM 309900). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were reprogrammed by lentiviral delivery of a self-silencing hOKSM polycistronic vector. The pluripotency of iPSC line was confirmed by the expression of pluripotency-associated markers and in vitro spontaneous differentiation towards the 3 germ layers. The iPSC showed normal karyotype. The line offers a good platform to study MPS II pathophysiology,for drug testing,early biomarker discovery and gene therapy studies. View Publication

Peripheral blood was collected from a clinically characterized female Kleefstra syndrome patient with a heterozygous,de novo,premature termination codon (PTC) mutation (NM024757.4(EHMT1):c.3413GtextgreaterA; p.Trp1138Ter). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were reprogrammed with the human OSKM transcription factors using the Sendai-virus (SeV) delivery system. The pluripotency of transgene-free iPSC line was verified by the expression of pluripotency-associated markers and by in vitro spontaneous differentiation towards the 3 germ layers. Furthermore,the iPSC line showed normal karyotype. Our model might offer a good platform to study the pathomechanism of Kleefstra syndrome,also for drug testing,early biomarker discovery and gene therapy studies. View Publication