技术资料

Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) are a new class of engineered nucleases that are easier to design to cleave at desired sites in a genome than previous types of nucleases. We report here the use of TALENs to rapidly and efficiently generate mutant alleles of 15 genes in cultured somatic cells or human pluripotent stem cells,the latter for which we differentiated both the targeted lines and isogenic control lines into various metabolic cell types. We demonstrate cell-autonomous phenotypes directly linked to disease - dyslipidemia,insulin resistance,hypoglycemia,lipodystrophy,motor-neuron death,and hepatitis C infection. We found little evidence of TALEN off-target effects,but each clonal line nevertheless harbors a significant number of unique mutations. Given the speed and ease with which we were able to derive and characterize these cell lines,we anticipate TALEN-mediated genome editing of human cells becoming a mainstay for the investigation of human biology and disease. textcopyright 2013 Elsevier Inc. View Publication

Neurodevelopmental defects are observed in the hereditary disorder Cockayne syndrome (CS). The gene most frequently mutated in CS,Cockayne Syndrome B (CSB),is required for the repair of bulky DNA adducts in transcribed genes during transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair. CSB also plays a role in chromatin remodeling and mitochondrial function. The role of CSB in neural development is poorly understood. Here we report that the abundance of neural progenitors is normal in Csb(-/-) mice and the frequency of apoptotic cells in the neurogenic niche of the adult subependymal zone is similar in Csb(-/-) and wild type mice. Both embryonic and adult Csb(-/-) neural precursors exhibited defective self-renewal in the neurosphere assay. In Csb(-/-) neural precursors,self-renewal progressively decreased in serially passaged neurospheres. The data also indicate that Csb and the nucleotide excision repair protein Xpa preserve embryonic neural stem cell self-renewal after UV DNA damage. Although Csb(-/-) neural precursors do not exhibit altered neuronal lineage commitment after low-dose UV (1J/m(2)) in vitro,neurons differentiated in vitro from Csb(-/-) neural precursors that had been irradiated with 1J/m(2) UV exhibited defective neurite outgrowth. These findings identify a function for Csb in neural precursors. View Publication

BACKGROUND: Lineage specific differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) is largely mediated by specific growth factors and extracellular matrix molecules. Growth factors initiate a cascade of signals which control gene transcription and cell fate specification. There is a lot of interest in inducing hESCs to an endoderm fate which serves as a pathway towards more functional cell types like the pancreatic cells. Research over the past decade has established several robust pathways for deriving endoderm from hESCs,with the capability of further maturation. However,in our experience,the functional maturity of these endoderm derivatives,specifically to pancreatic lineage,largely depends on specific pathway of endoderm induction. Hence it will be of interest to understand the underlying mechanism mediating such induction and how it is translated to further maturation. In this work we analyze the regulatory interactions mediating different pathways of endoderm induction by identifying co-regulated transcription factors.backslashnbackslashnRESULTS: hESCs were induced towards endoderm using activin A and 4 different growth factors (FGF2 (F),BMP4 (B),PI3KI (P),and WNT3A (W)) and their combinations thereof,resulting in 15 total experimental conditions. At the end of differentiation each condition was analyzed by qRT-PCR for 12 relevant endoderm related transcription factors (TFs). As a first approach,we used hierarchical clustering to identify which growth factor combinations favor up-regulation of different genes. In the next step we identified sets of co-regulated transcription factors using a biclustering algorithm. The high variability of experimental data was addressed by integrating the biclustering formulation with bootstrap re-sampling to identify robust networks of co-regulated transcription factors. Our results show that the transition from early to late endoderm is favored by FGF2 as well as WNT3A treatments under high activin. However,induction of late endoderm markers is relatively favored by WNT3A under high activin.backslashnbackslashnCONCLUSIONS: Use of FGF2,WNT3A or PI3K inhibition with high activin A may serve well in definitive endoderm induction followed by WNT3A specific signaling to direct the definitive endoderm into late endodermal lineages. Other combinations,though still feasible for endoderm induction,appear less promising for pancreatic endoderm specification in our experiments. View Publication

Polycomb group protein BMI1 plays an important role in cellular homeostasis by maintaining a balance between proliferation and senescence. It is often overexpressed in cancer cells and is required for self-renewal of stem cells. At present,very little is known about the signaling pathways that regulate the expression of BMI1. Here,we report that BMI1 autoactivates its own promoter via an E-box present in its promoter. We show that BMI1 acts as an activator of the WNT pathway by repressing Dickkopf (DKK) family of WNT inhibitors. BMI1 mediated repression of DKK proteins; in particular,DKK1 led to up-regulation of WNT target c-Myc,which in turn further led to transcriptional autoactivation of BMI1. Thus,a positive feedback loop connected by the WNT signaling pathway regulates BMI1 expression. This positive feedback loop regulating BMI1 expression may be relevant to the role of BMI1 in promoting cancer and maintaining stem cell phenotype. View Publication

PURPOSE This study aimed to develop a feasible and efficient method for generating embryonic stem cell (ESC)-like induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from human Tenon's capsule fibroblasts (HTFs) through the expression of a defined set of transcription factors,which will have significant application value for ophthalmic personalized regenerative medicine. METHODS HTFs were harvested from fresh samples,and reprogramming was induced by the exogenous expression of the four classic transcription factors,OCT-3/4,SOX-2,KLF-4,and C-MYC. The HTF-derived iPS (TiPS) cells were analyzed with phase contrast microscopy,real-time PCR,immunofluorescence,FACS analysis,alkaline phosphatase activity analysis,and a teratoma formation assay. Human ESC colonies were used as the positive control. RESULTS The resulting HTF-derived iPS cell colonies were indistinguishable from human ESC colonies regarding morphology,gene expression levels,pluripotent gene expression,alkaline phosphatase activity,and the ability to generate all three embryonic germ layers. CONCLUSIONS This study presents a simple,efficient,practical procedure for generating patient-tailored iPS cells from HTFs. These cells will serve as a valuable and preferred candidate donor cell population for ophthalmological regenerative medicine. View Publication

Human induced pluripotent stem cells have the potential to become an unlimited cell source for cell replacement therapy. The realization of this potential,however,depends on the availability of culture methods that are robust,scalable,and use chemically defined materials. Despite significant advances in hiPSC technologies,the expansion of hiPSCs relies upon the use of animal-derived extracellular matrix extracts,such as Matrigel,which raises safety concerns over the use of these products. In this work,we investigated the feasibility of expanding and differentiating hiPSCs on a chemically defined,xeno-free synthetic peptide substrate,i.e. Corning Synthemax(®) Surface. We demonstrated that the Synthemax Surface supports the attachment,spreading,and proliferation of hiPSCs,as well as hiPSCs' lineage-specific differentiation. hiPSCs colonies grown on Synthemax Surfaces exhibit less spread and more compact morphology compared to cells grown on Matrigel™. The cytoskeleton characterization of hiPSCs grown on the Synthemax Surface revealed formation of denser actin filaments in the cell-cell interface. The down-regulation of vinculin and up-regulation of zyxin expression were also observed in hiPSCs grown on the Synthemax Surface. Further examination of cell-ECM interaction revealed that hiPSCs grown on the Synthemax Surface primarily utilize α(v)β(5) integrins to mediate attachment to the substrate,whereas multiple integrins are involved in cell attachment to Matrigel. Finally,hiPSCs can be maintained undifferentiated on the Synthemax Surface for more than ten passages. These studies provide a novel approach for expansion of hiPSCs using synthetic peptide engineered surface as a substrate to avoid a potential risk of contamination and lot-to-lot variability with animal derived materials. View Publication

Heterogeneity is an often unappreciated characteristic of stem cell populations yet its importance in fate determination is becoming increasingly evident. Although gene expression noise has received greater attention as a source of non-genetic heterogeneity,the effects of stochastic partitioning of cellular material during mitosis on population variability have not been researched to date. We examined self-renewing human embryonic stem cells (hESCs),which typically exhibit a dispersed distribution of the pluripotency marker NANOG. In conjunction with our experiments,a multiscale cell population balance equation (PBE) model was constructed accounting for transcriptional noise and stochastic partitioning at division as sources of population heterogeneity. Cultured hESCs maintained time-invariant profiles of size and NANOG expression and the data were utilized for parameter estimation. Contributions from both sources considered in this study were significant on the NANOG profile,although elimination of the gene expression noise resulted in greater changes in the dispersion of the NANOG distribution. Moreover,blocking of division by treating hESCs with nocodazole or colcemid led to a 39% increase in the average NANOG content and over 68% of the cells had higher NANOG level than the mean NANOG expression of untreated cells. Model predictions,which were in excellent agreement with these findings,revealed that stochastic partitioning accounted for 17% of the total noise in the NANOG profile of self-renewing hESCs. The computational framework developed in this study will aid in gaining a deeper understanding of how pluripotent stem/progenitor cells orchestrate processes such as gene expression and proliferation for maintaining their pluripotency or differentiating along particular lineages. Such models will be essential in designing and optimizing efficient differentiation strategies and bioprocesses for the production of therapeutically suitable stem cell progeny. View Publication

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) is caused by triple nucleotidebackslashnrepeat (CAG) expansion in the coding region of the ATAXN2 gene onbackslashnchromosome 12,which produces an elongated,toxic polyglutamine tract,backslashnleading to Purkinje cell loss. There is currently no effective therapy.backslashnOne of the main obstacles that hampers therapeutic development is lackbackslashnof an ideal disease model. In this study,we have generated andbackslashncharacterized SCA2-induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines as an inbackslashnvitro cell model. Dermal fibroblasts (FBs) were harvested from primarybackslashncultures of skin explants obtained from a SCA2 subject and a healthybackslashnsubject. For reprogramming,hOct4,hSox2,hKlf4,and hc-Myc werebackslashntransduced to passage-3 FBs by retroviral infection. Both SCA2 iPS andbackslashncontrol iPS cells were successfully generated and showed typical stembackslashncell growth patterns with normal karyotype. All iPS cell lines expressedbackslashnstem cell markers and differentiated in vitro into cells from threebackslashnembryonic germ layers. Upon in vitro neural differentiation,SCA2 iPSbackslashncells showed abnormality in neural rosette formation but successfullybackslashndifferentiated into neural stem cells (NSCs) and subsequent neuralbackslashncells. SCA2 and normal FBs showed a comparable level of ataxin-2backslashnexpression; whereas SCA2 NSCs showed less ataxin-2 expression thanbackslashnnormal NSCs and SCA2 FBs. Within the neural lineage,neurons had thebackslashnmost abundant expression of ataxin-2. Time-lapsed neural growth assaybackslashnindicated terminally differentiated SCA2 neural cells were short-livedbackslashncompared with control neural cells. The expanded CAG repeats of SCA2backslashnwere stable throughout reprogramming and neural differentiation. Inbackslashnconclusion,we have established the first disease-specific human SCA2backslashniPS cell line. These mutant iPS cells have the potential for neuralbackslashndifferentiation. These differentiated neural cells harboring mutationsbackslashnare invaluable for the study of SCA2 pathogenesis and therapeutic drugbackslashndevelopment. View Publication

One of the hurdles for practical application of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) is the low efficiency and slow process of reprogramming. Octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4) has been shown to be an essential regulator of embryonic stem cell (ESC) pluripotency and key to the reprogramming process. To identify small molecules that enhance reprogramming efficiency,we performed a cell-based high-throughput screening of chemical libraries. One of the compounds,termed Oct4-activating compound 1 (OAC1),was found to activate both Oct4 and Nanog promoter-driven luciferase reporter genes. Furthermore,when added to the reprogramming mixture along with the quartet reprogramming factors (Oct4,Sox2,c-Myc,and Klf4),OAC1 enhanced the iPSC reprogramming efficiency and accelerated the reprogramming process. Two structural analogs of OAC1 also activated Oct4 and Nanog promoters and enhanced iPSC formation. The iPSC colonies derived using the Oct4-activating compounds along with the quartet factors exhibited typical ESC morphology,gene-expression pattern,and developmental potential. OAC1 seems to enhance reprogramming efficiency in a unique manner,independent of either inhibition of the p53-p21 pathway or activation of the Wnt-β-catenin signaling. OAC1 increases transcription of the Oct4-Nanog-Sox2 triad and Tet1,a gene known to be involved in DNA demethylation. View Publication

The mechanisms ensuring the long-term self-renewal of human embryonic stem cells are still only partly understood,limiting their use in cellular therapies. Here we found that increased activity of the RB cell cycle inhibitor in human embryonic stem cells induces cell cycle arrest,differentiation and cell death. Conversely,inactivation of the entire RB family (RB,p107 and p130) in human embryonic stem cells triggers G2/M arrest and cell death through functional activation of the p53 pathway and the cell cycle inhibitor p21. Differences in E2F target gene activation upon loss of RB family function between human embryonic stem cells,mouse embryonic stem cells and human fibroblasts underscore key differences in the cell cycle regulatory networks of human embryonic stem cells. Finally,loss of RB family function promotes genomic instability in both human and mouse embryonic stem cells,uncoupling cell cycle defects from chromosomal instability. These experiments indicate that a homeostatic level of RB activity is essential for the self-renewal and the survival of human embryonic stem cells. View Publication

Epithelial to mesenchymal transitions (EMTs) are thought to be essential to generate diversity of tissues during early fetal development,but these events are essentially impossible to study at the molecular level in vivo in humans. The first EMT event that has been described morphologically in human development occurs just prior to generation of the primitive streak. Because human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are thought to most closely resemble cells found in epiblast-stage embryos prior to formation of the primitive streak,we sought to determine whether this first human EMT could be modeled in vitro with pluripotent stem cells. The data presented here suggest that generating embryoid bodies from hESCs or hiPSCs drives a procession of EMT events that can be observed within 24-48 hours after EB generation. These structures possess the typical hallmarks of developmental EMTs,and portions also display evidence of primitive streak and mesendoderm. We identify PTK7 as a novel marker of this EMT population,which can also be used to purify these cells for subsequent analyses and identification of novel markers of human development. Gene expression analysis indicated an upregulation of EMT markers and ECM proteins in the PTK7+ population. We also find that cells that undergo this developmental EMT retain developmental plasticity as sorting,dissociation and re-plating reestablishes an epithelial phenotype. View Publication

Here we demonstrate,both in vivo and in vitro,that growth hormone (GH) mediates precursor cell activation in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the aged (12-month-old) brain following exercise,and that GH signaling stimulates precursor activation to a similar extent to exercise. Our results reveal that both addition of GH in culture and direct intracerebroventricular infusion of GH stimulate neural precursor cells in the aged brain. In contrast,no increase in neurosphere numbers was observed in GH receptor null animals following exercise. Continuous infusion of a GH antagonist into the lateral ventricle of wild-type animals completely abolished the exercise-induced increase in neural precursor cell number. Given that the aged brain does not recover well after injury,we investigated the direct effect of exercise and GH on neural precursor cell activation following irradiation. This revealed that physical exercise as well as infusion of GH promoted repopulation of neural precursor cells in irradiated aged animals. Conversely,infusion of a GH antagonist during exercise prevented recovery of precursor cells in the SVZ following irradiation. View Publication