技术资料

Fanconi anemia (FA) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by progressive bone marrow failure (BMF) during childhood,aside from numerous congenital abnormalities. FA mouse models have been generated; however,they do not fully mimic the hematopoietic phenotype. As there is mounting evidence that the hematopoietic impairment starts already in utero,a human pluripotent stem cell model would constitute a more appropriate system to investigate the mechanisms underlying BMF in FA and its developmental basis. Using zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology,we have created a knockout of FANCA in human embryonic stem cells (hESC). We introduced a selection cassette into exon 2 thereby disrupting the FANCA coding sequence and found that whereas mono-allelically targeted cells retain an unaltered proliferation potential,disruption of the second allele causes a severe growth disadvantage. As a result,heterogeneous cultures arise due to the presence of cells still carrying an unaffected FANCA allele,quickly outgrowing the knockout cells. When pure cultures of FANCA knockout hESC are pursued either through selection or single cell cloning,this rapidly results in growth arrest and such cultures cannot be maintained. These data highlight the importance of a functional FA pathway at the pluripotent stem cell stage. ?? 2014. View Publication

Using time-lapse imaging,we have identified a series of bottlenecks that restrict growth of early-passage human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and that are relieved by karyotypically abnormal variants that are selected by prolonged culture. Only a minority of karyotypically normal cells divided after plating,and these were mainly cells in the later stages of cell cycle at the time of plating. Furthermore,the daughter cells showed a continued pattern of cell death after division,so that few formed long-term proliferating colonies. These colony-forming cells showed distinct patterns of cell movement. Increasing cell density enhanced cell movement facilitating cell:cell contact,which resulted in increased proportion of dividing cells and improved survival postplating of normal hESCs. In contrast,most of the karyotypically abnormal cells reentered the cell cycle on plating and gave rise to healthy progeny,without the need for cell:cell contacts and independent of their motility patterns. ?? 2014 The Authors. View Publication

Induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS) are an artificially derived type of pluripotent stem cell,showing many of the same characteristics as natural pluripotent stem cells. IPS are a hopeful therapeutic model; however there is a critical need to determine their response to environmental toxins. Effects of arsenic on cells have been studied extensively; however,its effect on IPS is yet to be elucidated. Arsenic trioxide (ATO) has been shown to inhibit cell proliferation,induce apoptosis and genotoxicity in many cells. Based on ATOs action in other cells,we hypothesize that it will induce alterations in morphology,inhibit cell viability and induce a genotoxic effect on IPS. Cells were treated for 24 hours with ATO (0-9 µg/mL). Cell morphology,viability and DNA damage were documented. Results indicated sufficient changes in morphology of cell colonies mainly in cell ability to maintain grouping and ability to remain adherent. Cell viability decreased in a dose dependent manner. There were significant increases in tail length and moment as well as destruction of intact DNA as concentration increased. Exposure to ATO resulted in a reproducible dose dependent sequence of events marked by changes in morphology,decrease of cell viability,and induction of genotoxicity in IPS. View Publication

The development of novel platforms for large scale production of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) derived cardiomyocytes (CM) becomes more crucial as the demand for CMs in preclinical trials,high throughput cardio toxicity assays and future regenerative therapeutics rises. To this end,we have designed a microcarrier (MC) suspension agitated platform that integrates pluripotent hESC expansion followed by CM differentiation in a continuous,homogenous process.Hydrodynamic shear stresses applied during the hESC expansion and CM differentiation steps drastically reduced the capability of the cells to differentiate into CMs. Applying vigorous stirring during pluripotent hESC expansion on Cytodex 1 MC in spinner cultures resulted in low CM yields in the following differentiation step (cardiac troponin-T (cTnT): 22.83. ??. 2.56%; myosin heavy chain (MHC): 19.30. ??. 5.31%). Whereas the lower shear experienced in side to side rocker (wave type) platform resulted in higher CM yields (cTNT: 47.50. ??. 7.35%; MHC: 42.85. ??. 2.64%). The efficiency of CM differentiation is also affected by the hydrodynamic shear stress applied during the first 3. days of the differentiation stage. Even low shear applied continuously by side to side rocker agitation resulted in very low CM differentiation efficiency (cTnT. textless. 5%; MHC. textless. 2%). Simply by applying intermittent agitation during these 3. days followed by continuous agitation for the subsequent 9. days,CM differentiation efficiency can be substantially increased (cTNT: 65.73. ??. 10.73%; MHC: 59.73. ??. 9.17%). These yields are 38.3% and 39.3% higher (for cTnT and MHC respectively) than static culture control.During the hESC expansion phase,cells grew on continuously agitated rocker platform as pluripotent cell/MC aggregates (166??88??105??m2) achieving a cell concentration of 3.74??0.55??106cells/mL (18.89??2.82 fold expansion) in 7days. These aggregates were further differentiated into CMs using a WNT modulation differentiation protocol for the subsequent 12days on a rocking platform with an intermittent agitation regime during the first 3days. Collectively,the integrated MC rocker platform produced 190.5??58.8??106 CMs per run (31.75??9.74 CM/hESC seeded). The robustness of the system was demonstrated by using 2 cells lines,hESC (HES-3) and human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) IMR-90. The CM/MC aggregates formed extensive sarcomeres that exhibited cross-striations confirming cardiac ontogeny. Functionality of the CMs was demonstrated by monitoring the effect of inotropic drug,Isoproterenol on beating frequency.In conclusion,we have developed a simple robust and scalable platform that integrates both hESC expansion and CM differentiation in one unit process which is capable of meeting the need for large amounts of CMs. ?? 2014. View Publication

Stirred-suspension bioreactors are a promising modality for large-scale culture of 3D aggregates of pluripotent stem cells and their progeny. Yet,cells within these clusters experience limitations in the transfer of factors and particularly O2 which is characterized by low solubility in aqueous media. Cultured stem cells under different O2 levels may exhibit significantly different proliferation,viability and differentiation potential. Here,a transient diffusion-reaction model was built encompassing the size distribution and ultrastructural characteristics of embryonic stem cell (ESC) aggregates. The model was coupled to experimental data from bioreactor and static cultures for extracting the effective diffusivity and kinetics of consumption of O2 within mouse (mESC) and human ESC (hESC) clusters. Under agitation,mESC aggregates exhibited a higher maximum consumption rate than hESC aggregates. Moreover,the reaction-diffusion model was integrated with a population balance equation (PBE) for the temporal distribution of ESC clusters changing due to aggregation and cell proliferation. Hypoxia was found to be negligible for ESCs with a smaller radius than 100 µm but became appreciable for aggregates larger than 300 µm. The integrated model not only captured the O2 profile both in the bioreactor bulk and inside ESC aggregates but also led to the calculation of the duration that fractions of cells experience a certain range of O2 concentrations. The approach described in this study can be employed for gaining a deeper understanding of the effects of O2 on the physiology of stem cells organized in 3D structures. Such frameworks can be extended to encompass the spatial and temporal availability of nutrients and differentiation factors and facilitate the design and control of relevant bioprocesses for the production of stem cell therapeutics. View Publication

Recent studies have suggested that human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) depend primarily on glycolysis and only increase oxidative metabolism during differentiation. Here,we demonstrate that both glycolytic and oxidative metabolism can support hPSC growth and that the metabolic phenotype of hPSCs is largely driven by nutrient availability. We comprehensively characterized hPSC metabolism by using 13C/2H stable isotope tracing and flux analysis to define the metabolic pathways supporting hPSC bioenergetics and biosynthesis. Although glycolytic flux consistently supported hPSC growth,chemically defined media strongly influenced the state of mitochondrial respiration and fatty acid metabolism. Lipid deficiency dramatically reprogramed pathways associated with fatty acid biosynthesis and NADPH regeneration,altering the mitochondrial function of cells and driving flux through the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway. Lipid supplementation mitigates this metabolic reprogramming and increases oxidative metabolism. These results demonstrate that self-renewing hPSCs can present distinct metabolic states and highlight the importance of medium nutrients on mitochondrial function and development. Zhang et al. apply metabolic flux analysis to comprehensively characterize the metabolism of human pluripotent stem cells cultured in different media. Cells maintained in chemically defined media significantly upregulate lipid biosynthesis and redox pathways to compensate for medium lipid deficiency while downregulating oxidative mitochondrial metabolism. View Publication

The differentiation efficiency of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) is highly sensitive to culture conditions. To elucidate the regulatory mechanisms involved,we investigated hESCs grown on three distinct culture platforms: feeder-free Matrigel,mouse embryonic fibroblast feeders,and Matrigel replated on feeders. At the outset,we profiled and quantified their differentiation efficiency,transcriptome,transcription factor binding sites and DNA-methylation. Subsequent genome-wide analyses allowed us to reconstruct the relevant interactome,thereby forming the regulatory basis for implicating the contrasting differentiation efficiency of the culture conditions. We hypothesized that the parental expressions of FOXC1,FOXD1 and FOXQ1 transcription factors (TFs) are correlative with eventual cardiomyogenic outcome. Through WNT induction of the FOX TFs,we observed the co-activation of WNT3 and EOMES which are potent inducers of mesoderm differentiation. The result strengthened our hypothesis on the regulatory role of the FOX TFs in enhancing mesoderm differentiation capacity of hESCs. Importantly,the final proportions of cells expressing cardiac markers were directly correlated to the strength of FOX inductions within 72 hours after initiation of differentiation across different cell lines and protocols. Thus,we affirmed the relationship between early FOX TF expressions and cardiomyogenesis efficiency. View Publication

ALS is a rapidly progressive,devastating neurodegenerative illness of adults that produces disabling weakness and spasticity arising from death of lower and upper motor neurons. No meaningful therapies exist to slow ALS progression,and molecular insights into pathogenesis and progression are sorely needed. In that context,we used high-depth,next generation RNA sequencing (RNAseq,Illumina) to define gene network abnormalities in RNA samples depleted of rRNA and isolated from cervical spinal cord sections of 7 ALS and 8 CTL samples. We aligned textgreater50 million 2X150 bp paired-end sequences/sample to the hg19 human genome and applied three different algorithms (Cuffdiff2,DEseq2,EdgeR) for identification of differentially expressed genes (DEG's). Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA) and Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) identified inflammatory processes as significantly elevated in our ALS samples,with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) found to be a major pathway regulator (IPA) and TNF$$-induced protein 2 (TNFAIP2) as a major network hub" gene (WGCNA). Using the oPOSSUM algorithm� View Publication

Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon resulting in parent-of-origin-specific gene expression that is regulated by a differentially methylated region. Gene mutations or failures in the imprinting process lead to the development of imprinting disorders,such as Angelman syndrome. The symptoms of Angelman syndrome are caused by the absence of functional UBE3A protein in neurons of the brain. To create a human neuronal model for Angelman syndrome,we reprogrammed dermal fibroblasts of a patient carrying a defined three-base pair deletion in UBE3A into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). In these iPSCs,both parental alleles are present,distinguishable by the mutation,and express UBE3A. Detailed characterization of these iPSCs demonstrated their pluripotency and exceptional stability of the differentially methylated region regulating imprinted UBE3A expression. We observed strong induction of SNHG14 and silencing of paternal UBE3A expression only late during neuronal differentiation,in vitro. This new Angelman syndrome iPSC line allows to study imprinted gene regulation on both parental alleles and to dissect molecular pathways affected by the absence of UBE3A protein. View Publication

Helper-dependent adenoviral vectors (HDAd) that express certain transgene products are impossible to produce because the transgene product is toxic to the producer cells,especially when made in large amounts during vector production. Downregulating transgene expression from the HDAd during vector production is a way to solve this problem. In this report,we show that this can be accomplished by inserting the target sequence for the adenoviral VA RNAI into the 3' untranslated region of the expression cassette in the HDAd. Thus during vector production,when the producer cells are coinfected with both the helper virus (HV) and the HDAd,the VA RNAI produced by the HV will target the transgene mRNA from the HDAd via the endogenous cellular RNAi pathway. Once the HDAd is produced and purified,transduction of the target cells results in unimpeded transgene expression because of the absence of HV. This simple and universal strategy permits for the robust production of otherwise recalcitrant HDAds. View Publication

Human somatic stem cells such as mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have the capacity to differentiate into mesenchymal tissue lineages and to alter immune regulatory functions. As such,they hold promise for use in stem cell-based therapies. However,no method is currently available to evaluate the actual differentiation capacity of hMSCs prior to cell transplantation. Previously,we performed a comprehensive glycan profiling of adipose-derived hMSCs using high-density lectin microarray and demonstrated that $$2-6-sialylation is a marker of the differentiation potential of these cells. Nevertheless,no information was available about the structural details of these of $$2-6-sialylated glycans. Here we used high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis combined with mass spectrometry (MS) to perform a structural and quantitative glycome analysis targeting both N- and O-glycans derived from early (with differentiation ability) and late (without differentiation ability) passages of adipose tissue-derived hMSCs. Findings in these cells were compared with those from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs),human dermal fibroblasts (hFibs) and cartilage tissue-derived chondrocytes. A higher percentage of $$2-6-sialylated N-glycans was detected in early passage cells (24-28 % of sialylated N-glycans) compared with late passage cells (13-15 %). A major $$2-6-sialylated N-glycan structure detected in adipose-derived hMSCs was that of mono-sialylated biantennary N-glycan. Similar results were obtained for the cartilage tissue-derived chondrocytes,Yub621c (28 % for passage 7 and 5 % for passage 28). In contrast,no significant differences were observed between early and late passage hMSCs with respect to $$2-6-sialylated O-glycan percentages. These results demonstrate that levels of $$2-6-sialylated N-glycans,but not O-glycans,could be used as markers of the differential potential of hMSCs. View Publication

With the advent of induced pluripotent stem cells and directed differentiation techniques,it is now feasible to derive individual-specific cardiac cells for human heart tissue engineering. Here we report the generation of functional engineered human cardiac patches using human induced pluripotent stem cells-derived cardiac cells and decellularized natural heart ECM as scaffolds. The engineered human cardiac patches can be tailored to any desired size and shape and exhibited normal contractile and electrical physiology in vitro. Further,when patching on the infarct area,these patches improved heart function of rats with acute myocardial infarction in vivo. These engineered human cardiac patches can be of great value for normal and disease-specific heart tissue engineering,drug screening,and meet the demands for individual-specific heart tissues for personalized regenerative therapy of myocardial damages in the future. View Publication