技术资料

Genomic abnormalities may accumulate in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) during in vitro maintenance. Characterization of the mechanisms enabling survival and expansion of abnormal hESCs is important due to consequences of genetic changes for the therapeutic utilization of stem cells. Furthermore,these cells provide an excellent model to study transformation in vitro. We report here that the histone deacetylase proteins,HDAC1 and HDAC2,are increased in karyotypically abnormal hESCs when compared to their normal counterparts. Importantly,similar to many cancer cell lines,we found that HDAC inhibitors repress proliferation of the karyotypically abnormal hESCs,whereas normal cells are more resistant to the treatment. The decreased proliferation correlates with downregulation of HDAC1 and HDAC2 proteins,induction of the proliferation inhibitor,cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (CDKN1A),and altered regulation of tumor suppressor protein Retinoblastoma 1 (RB1). Through genome-wide transcriptome analysis we have identified genes with altered expression and responsiveness to HDAC inhibition in abnormal cells. Most of these genes are linked to severe developmental and neurological diseases and cancers. Our results highlight the importance of epigenetic mechanisms in the regulation of genomic stability of hESCs,and provide valuable candidates for targeted and selective growth inhibition of karyotypically abnormal cells. textcopyright 2013 Elsevier B.V. View Publication

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cell) holds great potential for applications in regenerative medicine,drug discovery,and disease modeling. We describe here a practical method to generate human iPS cells from urine-derived cells (UCs) under feeder-free,virus-free,serum-free condition and without oncogene c-MYC. We showed that this approach could be applied in a large population with different genetic backgrounds. UCs are easily accessible and exhibit high reprogramming efficiency,offering advantages over other cell types used for the purpose of iPS generation. Using the approach described in this study,we have generated 93 iPS cell lines from 20 donors with diverse genetic backgrounds. The non-viral iPS cell bank with these cell lines provides a valuable resource for iPS cells research,facilitating future applications of human iPS cells. View Publication

Neurogenin3+ (Ngn3+) progenitor cells in the developing pancreas give rise to five endocrine cell types secreting insulin,glucagon,somatostatin,pancreatic polypeptide and ghrelin. Gastrin is a hormone produced primarily by G-cells in the stomach,where it functions to stimulate acid secretion by gastric parietal cells. Gastrin is expressed in the embryonic pancreas and is common in islet cell tumors,but the lineage and regulators of pancreatic gastrin+ cells are not known. We report that gastrin is abundantly expressed in the embryonic pancreas and disappears soon after birth. Some gastrin+ cells in the developing pancreas co-express glucagon,ghrelin or pancreatic polypeptide,but many gastrin+ cells do not express any other islet hormone. Pancreatic gastrin+ cells express the transcription factors Nkx6.1,Nkx2.2 and low levels of Pdx1,and derive from Ngn3+ endocrine progenitor cells as shown by genetic lineage tracing. Using mice deficient for key transcription factors we show that gastrin expression depends on Ngn3,Nkx2.2,NeuroD1 and Arx,but not Pax4 or Pax6. Finally,gastrin expression is induced upon differentiation of human embryonic stem cells to pancreatic endocrine cells expressing insulin. Thus,gastrin+ cells are a distinct endocrine cell type in the pancreas and an alternative fate of Ngn3+ cells. View Publication

We have tracked the fate of immature human B cells at a critical stage in their development when the mature B cell repertoire is shaped. We show that a major subset of bone marrow emigrant immature human B cells,the transitional 2 (T2) B cells,homes to gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) and that most T2 B cells isolated from human GALT are activated. Activation in GALT is a previously unknown potential fate for immature human B cells. The process of maturation from immature transitional B cell through to mature naive B cell includes the removal of autoreactive cells from the developing repertoire,a process which is known to fail in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We observe that immature B cells in SLE are poorly equipped to access the gut and that gut immune compartments are depleted in SLE. Thus,activation of immature B cells in GALT may function as a checkpoint that protects against autoimmunity. In healthy individuals,this pathway may be involved in generating the vast population of IgA plasma cells and also the enigmatic marginal zone B cell subset that is poorly understood in humans. View Publication

Reduced expression 1 (REX1) is a widely used pluripotency marker,but little is known about its roles in pluripotency. Here,we show that REX1 is functionally important in the reacquisition and maintenance of pluripotency. REX1-depleted human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) lose their self-renewal capacity and full differentiation potential,especially their mesoderm lineage potential. Cyclin B1/B2 expression was found to parallel that of REX1. REX1 positively regulates the transcriptional activity of cyclin B1/B2 through binding to their promoters. REX1 induces the phosphorylation of DRP1 at Ser616 by cyclin B/CDK1,which leads to mitochondrial fission and appears to be important for meeting the high-energy demands of highly glycolytic hPSCs. During reprogramming to pluripotency by defined factors (OCT4,SOX2,KLF4,and c-MYC),the reprogramming kinetics and efficiency are markedly improved by adding REX1 or replacing KLF4 with REX1. These improvements are achieved by lowering reprogramming barriers (growth arrest and apoptosis),by enhancing mitochondrial fission,and by conversion to glycolytic metabolism,dependent on the cyclin B1/B2-DRP1 pathway. Our results show that a novel pluripotency regulator,REX1,is essential for pluripotency and reprogramming. View Publication

The neural differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is a potential tool for elucidating the key mechanisms involved in human neurogenesis. Nestin and ??-III-tubulin,which are cytoskeleton proteins,are marker proteins of neural stem cells (NSCs) and neurons,respectively. However,the expression patterns of nestin and ??-III-tubulin in neural derivatives from human ESCs remain unclear. In this study,we found that neural progenitor cells (NPCs) derived from H9 cells express high levels of nestin and musashi-1. In contrast,??-III-tubulin was weakly expressed in a few NPCs. Moreover,in these cells,nestin formed filament networks,whereas ??-III-tubulin was distributed randomly as small particles. As the differentiation proceeded,the nestin filament networks and the ??-III-tubulin particles were found in both the cell soma and the cellular processes. Moreover,the colocalization of nestin and ??-III-tubulin was found mainly in the cell processes and neurite-like structures and not in the cell soma. These results may aid our understanding of the expression patterns of nestin and ??-III-tubulin during the neural differentiation of H9 cells. ?? 2013 Elsevier Inc. View Publication

Patients with triple-negative breast cancer display the highest rates of early relapse of all patients with breast cancer. The basal-like subtype,a subgroup of triple-negative breast cancer,exhibits high levels of constitutively active NF-κB signalling. Here we show that NF-κB activation,induced by inflammatory cytokines or by epigenetically dysregulated NIK expression,cell-autonomously upregulates JAG1 expression in non-cancer stem cells. This upregulation stimulates NOTCH signalling in cancer stem cells in trans,leading to an expansion of cancer stem cell populations. Among breast cancers,the NF-κB-dependent induction of JAG1 and the NOTCH-dependent expansion of the cancer stem cell population occur only in the basal-like subtype. Collectively,our results indicate that NF-κB has a non-cell-autonomous role in regulating cancer stem cell populations by forming intratumoural microenvironments composed of JAG1-expressing non-cancer stem cells with a basal-like subtype. View Publication

BACKGROUND Many cancers,including melanoma,exclusively express constitutive proteasomes (cPs) and are unable to express immunoproteasomes (iPs). In contrast,mature DCs used for immunotherapy exclusively express iPs. Since proteasomes generate peptides presented by HLA class I molecules,we hypothesized that mature melanoma antigen-loaded DCs engineered to process antigens through cPs would be superior inducers of antimelanoma immunity in vivo. METHODS Subjects with metastatic melanoma were vaccinated with mature DCs transfected with RNAs encoding melanoma antigens MART1,MAGE-3,gp100,and tyrosinase. These DCs were derived from monocytes that were untransfected (Arm A; n = 4),transfected with control siRNA (Arm B; n = 3),or transfected with siRNAs targeting the 3 inducible iP subunits (Arm C; n = 5). RESULTS Vaccination stimulated antigen-specific T cell responses in all subjects,which peaked after 3-4 vaccinations,but remained elevated in Arm C subjects. Also in Arm C,circulating melanoma cell levels (as detected by quantitative PCR) fell,and T cell lytic activity against autologous melanoma was induced. In HLA-A2 subjects,CD8 T cells that bound tetramers loaded with cP-derived melanoma antigenic peptides were found in the peripheral blood only in Arm C subjects. Of 2 subjects with active disease (both in Arm C),one had a partial clinical response,while the other,who exhibited diffuse dermal and soft tissue metastases,had a complete response. CONCLUSION These results suggest that the efficacy of melanoma DC-based immunotherapy is enhanced when tumor antigen-loaded DCs used for vaccination express cPs. TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00672542. FUNDING Duke Clinical Research Institute/Duke Translational Medicine Institute,Duke Melanoma Consortium,and Duke University Department of Surgery. View Publication

Transposon gene delivery systems offer an alternative,non-viral-based approach to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Here we used the Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon to generate four human iPSC lines from foetal fibroblasts. In contrast to other gene delivery systems,the SB transposon does not exhibit an integration bias towards particular genetic elements,thereby reducing the risk of insertional mutagenesis. Furthermore,unlike the alternative transposon piggyBac,SB has no SB-like elements within the human genome,minimising the possibility of mobilising endogenous transposon elements. All iPSC lines exhibited the expected characteristics of pluripotent human cells,including the ability to differentiate to derivatives of all three germ layers in vitro. Re-expression of the SB transposase in the iPSCs after reprogramming resulted in the mobilisation of some of the transposons. These results indicate that the SB transposon system is a useful addition to methods for generating human iPSCs,both for basic and applied biomedical research,and in the context of future therapeutic application. textcopyright 2013 International Society of Differentiation. View Publication

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are abundant in the mammalian transcriptome,and many are specifically expressed in the brain. We have identified a group of lncRNAs,including rhabdomyosarcoma 2-associated transcript (RMST),which are indispensable for neurogenesis. Here,we provide mechanistic insight into the role of human RMST in modulating neurogenesis. RMST expression is specific to the brain,regulated by the transcriptional repressor REST,and increases during neuronal differentiation,indicating a role in neurogenesis. RMST physically interacts with SOX2,a transcription factor known to regulate neural fate. RMST and SOX2 coregulate a large pool of downstream genes implicated in neurogenesis. Through RNA interference and genome-wide SOX2 binding studies,we found that RMST is required for the binding of SOX2 to promoter regions of neurogenic transcription factors. These results establish the role of RMST as a transcriptional coregulator of SOX2 and a key player in the regulation of neural stem cell fate. ?? 2013 Elsevier Inc. View Publication

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common human genetic disease which is caused by a single mutation of human β-globin (HBB) gene. The lack of long-term treatment makes the development of reliable cell and gene therapies highly desirable. Disease-specific patient-derived human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have great potential for developing novel cell and gene therapies. With the disease-causing mutations corrected in situ,patient-derived hiPSCs can restore normal cell functions and serve as a renewable autologous cell source for the treatment of genetic disorders. Here we successfully utilized transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs),a recently emerged novel genome editing tool,to correct the SCD mutation in patient-derived hiPSCs. The TALENs we have engineered are highly specific and generate minimal off-target effects. In combination with piggyBac transposon,TALEN-mediated gene targeting leaves no residual ectopic sequences at the site of correction and the corrected hiPSCs retain full pluripotency and a normal karyotype. Our study demonstrates an important first step of using TALENs for the treatment of genetic diseases such as SCD,which represents a significant advance toward hiPSC-based cell and gene therapies. View Publication

INTRODUCTION: Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of death and disability,but treatment options are severely limited. Cell therapy offers an attractive strategy for regenerating lost tissues and enhancing the endogenous healing process. In this study,we investigated the use of human embryonic stem cell-derived neural precursors as a cell therapy in a murine stroke model.backslashnbackslashnMETHODS: Neural precursors were derived from human embryonic stem cells by using a fully adherent SMAD inhibition protocol employing small molecules. The efficiency of neural induction and the ability of these cells to further differentiate into neurons were assessed by using immunocytochemistry. Whole-cell patch-clamp recording was used to demonstrate the electrophysiological activity of human embryonic stem cell-derived neurons. Neural precursors were transplanted into the core and penumbra regions of a focal ischemic stroke in the barrel cortex of mice. Animals received injections of bromodeoxyuridine to track regeneration. Neural differentiation of the transplanted cells and regenerative markers were measured by using immunohistochemistry. The adhesive removal test was used to determine functional improvement after stroke and intervention.backslashnbackslashnRESULTS: After 11 days of neural induction by using the small-molecule protocol,over 95% of human embryonic stem-derived cells expressed at least one neural marker. Further in vitro differentiation yielded cells that stained for mature neuronal markers and exhibited high-amplitude,repetitive action potentials in response to depolarization. Neuronal differentiation also occurred after transplantation into the ischemic cortex. A greater level of bromodeoxyuridine co-localization with neurons was observed in the penumbra region of animals receiving cell transplantation. Transplantation also improved sensory recovery in transplant animals over that in control animals.backslashnbackslashnCONCLUSIONS: Human embryonic stem cell-derived neural precursors derived by using a highly efficient small-molecule SMAD inhibition protocol can differentiate into electrophysiologically functional neurons in vitro. These cells also differentiate into neurons in vivo,enhance regenerative activities,and improve sensory recovery after ischemic stroke. View Publication