技术资料

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 pluripotent stem (hPS) cells are a potential source of cells for medical therapy and an ideal system to study fate decisions in early development. However,hPS cells cultured in vitro exhibit a high degree of heterogeneity,presenting an obstacle to clinical translation. hPS cells grow in spatially patterned colony structures,necessitating quantitative single-cell image analysis. We offer a tool for analyzing the spatial population context of hPS cells that integrates automated fluorescent microscopy with an analysis pipeline. It enables high-throughput detection of colonies at low resolution,with single-cellular and sub-cellular analysis at high resolutions,generating seamless in situ maps of single-cellular data organized by colony. We demonstrate the tool's utility by analyzing inter- and intra-colony heterogeneity of hPS cell cycle regulation and pluripotency marker expression. We measured the heterogeneity within individual colonies by analyzing cell cycle as a function of distance. Cells loosely associated with the outside of the colony are more likely to be in G1,reflecting a less pluripotent state,while cells within the first pluripotent layer are more likely to be in G2,possibly reflecting a G2/M block. Our multi-scale analysis tool groups colony regions into density classes,and cells belonging to those classes have distinct distributions of pluripotency markers and respond differently to DNA damage induction. Lastly,we demonstrate that our pipeline can robustly handle high-content,high-resolution single molecular mRNA FISH data by using novel image processing techniques. Overall,the imaging informatics pipeline presented offers a novel approach to the analysis of hPS cells that includes not only single cell features but also colony wide,and more generally,multi-scale spatial configuration. View Publication

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have demonstrated great potential for hyaline cartilage regeneration. However,current approaches for chondrogenic differentiation of hiPSCs are complicated and inefficient primarily due to intermediate embryoid body formation,which is required to generate endodermal,ectodermal,and mesodermal cell lineages. We report a new,straightforward and highly efficient approach for chondrogenic differentiation of hiPSCs,which avoids embryoid body formation. We differentiated hiPSCs directly into mesenchymal stem /stromal cells (MSC) and chondrocytes. hiPSC-MSC-derived chondrocytes showed significantly increased Col2A1,GAG,and SOX9 gene expression compared to hiPSC-MSCs. Following transplantation of hiPSC-MSC and hiPSC-MSC-derived chondrocytes into osteochondral defects of arthritic joints of athymic rats,magnetic resonance imaging studies showed gradual engraftment,and histological correlations demonstrated hyaline cartilage matrix production. Results present an efficient and clinically translatable approach for cartilage tissue regeneration via patient-derived hiPSCs,which could improve cartilage regeneration outcomes in arthritic joints. View Publication

Nature Communications 6,(2015). doi:10.1038/ncomms6999 View Publication

The clinical use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) requires efficient cellular expansion that must be paired with an ability to generate specialized progeny through differentiation. Self-renewal and differentiation are deemed inherent hallmarks of hESCs and a growing body of evidence suggests that initial culture conditions dictate these two aspects of hESC behavior. Here,we reveal that defined culture conditions using commercial mTeSR1 media augment the expansion of hESCs and enhance their capacity for neural differentiation at the expense of hematopoietic lineage competency without affecting pluripotency. This culture-induced modification was shown to be reversible,as culture in mouse embryonic fibroblast-conditioned media (MEF-CM) in subsequent passages allowed mTeSR1-expanded hESCs to re-establish hematopoietic differentiation potential. Optimal yield of hematopoietic cells can be achieved by expansion in mTeSR1 followed by a recovery period in MEF-CM. Furthermore,the lineage propensity to hematopoietic and neural cell types could be predicted via analysis of surrogate markers expressed by hESCs cultured in mTeSR1 versus MEF-CM,thereby circumventing laborious in vitro differentiation assays. Our study reveals that hESCs exist in a range of functional states and balance expansion with differentiation potential,which can be modulated by culture conditions in a predictive and quantitative manner. Stem Cells 2015;33:1142-1152. View Publication

Airway epithelial cells are of great interest for research on lung development,regeneration and disease modeling. This protocol describes how to generate cystic fibrosis (CF) transmembrane conductance regulator protein (CFTR)-expressing airway epithelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). The stepwise approach from PSC culture to differentiation into progenitors and then mature epithelia with apical CFTR activity is outlined. Human PSCs that were inefficient at endoderm differentiation using our previous lung differentiation protocol were able to generate substantial lung progenitor cell populations. Augmented CFTR activity can be observed in all cultures as early as at 35 d of differentiation,and full maturation of the cells in air-liquid interface cultures occurs in textless5 weeks. This protocol can be used for drug discovery,tissue regeneration or disease modeling. View Publication

There is an urgent need for new and advanced approaches to modeling the pathological mechanisms of complex human neurological disorders. This is underscored by the decline in pharmaceutical research and development efficiency resulting in a relative decrease in new drug launches in the last several decades. Induced pluripotent stem cells represent a new tool to overcome many of the shortcomings of conventional methods,enabling live human neural cell modeling of complex conditions relating to aberrant neurodevelopment,such as schizophrenia,epilepsy and autism as well as age-associated neurodegeneration. This review considers the current status of induced pluripotent stem cell-based modeling of neurological disorders,canvassing proven and putative advantages,current constraints,and future prospects of next-generation culture systems for biomedical research and translation. View Publication

Hypothalamic neurons orchestrate many essential physiological and behavioral processes via secreted neuropeptides,and are relevant to human diseases such as obesity,narcolepsy and infertility. We report the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into many of the major types of neuropeptidergic hypothalamic neurons,including those producing pro-opiolemelanocortin,agouti-related peptide,hypocretin/orexin,melanin-concentrating hormone,oxytocin,arginine vasopressin,corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) or thyrotropin-releasing hormone. Hypothalamic neurons can be generated using a 'self-patterning' strategy that yields a broad array of cell types,or via a more reproducible directed differentiation approach. Stem cell-derived human hypothalamic neurons share characteristic morphological properties and gene expression patterns with their counterparts in vivo,and are able to integrate into the mouse brain. These neurons could form the basis of cellular models,chemical screens or cellular therapies to study and treat common human diseases. View Publication

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are a promising cell source with pluripotency and capacity to differentiate into all human somatic cell types. Designing simple and safe biomaterials with an innate ability to induce osteoblastic lineage from hPSCs is desirable to realize their clinical adoption in bone regenerative medicine. To address the issue,here we developed a fully defined synthetic peptides-decorated two dimensional (2D) microenvironment assisted via polydopamine (pDA) chemistry and subsequent carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) grafting to enhance the culture and osteogenic potential of hPSCs in vitro. The hPSCs including human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) were successfully cultured on the peptides-decorated surface without Matrigel- and ECM protein-coating and underwent promoted osteogenic differentiation in vitro,determined from the alkaline phosphate (ALP) activity,gene expression,and protein production as well as calcium deposit amount. It was found that directed osteogenic differentiation of hPSCs could be achieved through a peptides-decorated niche. This chemical-defined and safe 2D microenvironment which facilitates proliferation and osteo-differentiation of hPSCs,not only helps to accelerate the translational perspectives of hPSCs,but also provides tissue-specific functions such as directing stem cell differentiation commitment,having great potential in bone tissue engineering and presenting new avenues for bone regenerative medicine. 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

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

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