技术资料

The development of xeno-free,chemically defined stem cell culture systems has been a primary focus in the field of regenerative medicine to enhance the clinical application of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). In this regard,various electrospun substrates with diverse physiochemical properties were synthesized utilizing various polymer precursors and surface treatments. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs) cultured on these substrates were characterized by their gene and protein expression to determine the effects of the substrate physiochemical properties on the cells' self-renewal,i.e.,proliferation and the maintenance of pluripotency. The results showed that surface chemistry significantly affected cell colony formation via governing the colony edge propagation. More importantly,when surface chemistry of the substrates was uniformly controlled by collagen conjugation,the stiffness of substrate was inversely related to the sphericity,a degree of three dimensionality in colony morphology. The differences in sphericity subsequently affected spontaneous differentiation of IPSCs during a long-term culture,implicating that the colony morphology is a deciding factor in the lineage commitment of PSCs. Overall,we show that the capability of controlling IPSC colony morphology by electrospun substrates provides a means to modulate IPSC self-renewal. View Publication

Reprogramming somatic cells into a pluripotent state involves the overexpression of transcription factors leading to a series of changes that end in the formation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These iPSCs have a wide range of potential uses from drug testing and in vitro disease modelling to personalized cell therapies for patients. While viral methods for reprogramming factor delivery have been traditionally preferred due to their high efficiency,it is now possible to generate iPSCs using nonviral methods at similar efficiencies. We developed a robust reprogramming strategy that combines episomal plasmids and the use of commercially available animal free reagents that can be easily adapted for the GMP manufacture of clinical grade cells. View Publication

Neural precursor (NP) cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs),and their neuronal progeny,will play an important role in disease modeling,drug screening tests,central nervous system development studies,and may even become valuable for regenerative medicine treatments. Nonetheless,it is challenging to obtain homogeneous and synchronously differentiated NP populations from hiPSCs,and after neural commitment many pluripotent stem cells remain in the differentiated cultures. Here,we describe an efficient and simple protocol to differentiate hiPSC-derived NPs in 12 days,and we include a final purification stage where Tra-1-60+ pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are removed using magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS),leaving the NP population nearly free of PSCs. View Publication

Human embryonic stem cells hold great promise for future biomedical applications such as disease modeling and regenerative medicine. However,these cells are notoriously difficult to culture and are refractory to common means of genetic manipulation,thereby limiting their range of applications. In this protocol,we present an easy and robust method of gene repression in human embryonic stem cells using lipofection of small interfering RNA (siRNA). View Publication

Here we describe a protocol to generate a co-culture consisting of 2 different neuronal populations. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are reprogrammed from human fibroblasts using episomal vectors. Colonies of iPSCs can be observed 30 days after initiation of fibroblast reprogramming. Pluripotent colonies are manually picked and grown in neural induction medium to permit differentiation into neural progenitor cells (NPCs). iPSCs rapidly convert into neuroepithelial cells within 1 week and retain the capability to self-renew when maintained at a high culture density. Primary mouse NPCs are differentiated into astrocytes by exposure to a serum-containing medium for 7 days and form a monolayer upon which embryonic day 18 (E18) rat cortical neurons (transfected with channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2)) are added. Human NPCs tagged with the fluorescent protein,tandem dimer Tomato (tdTomato),are then seeded onto the astrocyte/cortical neuron culture the following day and allowed to differentiate for 28 to 35 days. We demonstrate that this system forms synaptic connections between iPSC-derived neurons and cortical neurons,evident from an increase in the frequency of synaptic currents upon photostimulation of the cortical neurons. This co-culture system provides a novel platform for evaluating the ability of iPSC-derived neurons to create synaptic connections with other neuronal populations. View Publication

Stochastic processes and imprinting,along with genetic factors,lead to monoallelic or allele-biased gene expression. Stochastic monoallelic expression fine-tunes information processing in immune cells and the olfactory system,and imprinting plays an important role in development. Recent studies suggest that both stochastic events and imprinting may be more widespread than previously considered. We are interested in allele-biased gene expression occurring in the brain because parent-of-origin effects suggestive of imprinting appear to play a role in the transmission of schizophrenia (SZ) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in some families. In addition,allele-biased expression could help explain monozygotic (MZ) twin discordance and reduced penetrance. The ability to study allele-biased expression in human neurons has been transformed with the advent of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology and next generation sequencing. Using transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) we identified 801 genes in differentiating neurons that were expressed in an allele-biased manner. These included a number of putative SZ and ASD candidates,such as A2BP1 (RBFOX1),ERBB4,NLGN4X,NRG1,NRG3,NRXN1,and NLGN1. Overall,there was a modest enrichment for SZ and ASD candidate genes among those that showed evidence for allele-biased expression (chi-square,p = 0.02). In addition to helping explain MZ twin discordance and reduced penetrance,the capacity to group many candidate genes affecting a variety of molecular and cellular pathways under a common regulatory process - allele-biased expression - could have therapeutic implications. View Publication

BACKGROUND: Endothelial cells line the luminal surface of blood vessels and form a barrier between the blood and other tissues of the body. Ets variant 2 (ETV2) is transiently expressed in both zebrafish and mice and is necessary and sufficient for vascular endothelial cell specification. Overexpression of this gene in early zebrafish and mouse embryos results in ectopic appearance of endothelial cells. Ectopic expression of ETV2 in later development results in only a subset of cells responding to the signal.backslashnbackslashnFINDINGS: We have examined the expression pattern of ETV2 in differentiating human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to determine when the peak of ETV2 expression occurs. We show that overexpression of ETV2 in differentiating human ESC is able to increase the number of endothelial cells generated when administered during or after the endogenous peak of gene expression.backslashnbackslashnCONCLUSIONS: Addition of exogenous ETV2 to human ESCs significantly increased the number of cells expressing angioblast genes without arterial or venous specification. This may be a viable solution to generate in vitro endothelial cells for use in research and in the clinic. View Publication

The generation of personalized induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) followed by targeted genome editing provides an opportunity for developing customized effective cellular therapies for genetic disorders. However,it is critical to ascertain whether edited iPSCs harbor unfavorable genomic variations before their clinical application. To examine the mutation status of the edited iPSC genome and trace the origin of possible mutations at different steps,we have generated virus-free iPSCs from amniotic cells carrying homozygous point mutations in beta-hemoglobin gene (HBB) that cause severe beta-thalassemia (beta-Thal),corrected the mutations in both HBB alleles by zinc finger nuclease-aided gene targeting,and obtained the final HBB gene-corrected iPSCs by excising the exogenous drug resistance gene with Cre recombinase. Through comparative genomic hybridization and whole-exome sequencing,we uncovered seven copy number variations,five small insertions/deletions,and 64 single nucleotide variations (SNVs) in beta-Thal iPSCs before the gene targeting step and found a single small copy number variation,19 insertions/deletions,and 340 single nucleotide variations in the final gene-corrected beta-Thal iPSCs. Our data revealed that substantial but different genomic variations occurred at factor-induced somatic cell reprogramming and zinc finger nuclease-aided gene targeting steps,suggesting that stringent genomic monitoring and selection are needed both at the time of iPSC derivation and after gene targeting. View Publication