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Human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line was derived from abnormal blastocyst donated by Marfan syndrome patient after preimpantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) treatment. DNA sequencing analysis confirmed that the hESC line carried the heterozygous deletion mutation,c.3536delA,of FBN1 gene. Characteristic tests proved that the hESC line presented typicalmarkers of pluripotency and had the capability to formthe three germlayers both in vitro and in vivo. View Publication

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and derived progeny provide invaluable regenerative platforms,yet their clinical translation has been compromised by their biosafety concern. Here,we assessed the safety of transplanting patient-derived iPSC-generated pancreatic endoderm/ progenitor cells. Transplantation of progenitors from iPSCs reprogrammed by lentiviral vectors (LV-iPSCs) led to the formation of invasive teratocarcinoma-like tumors in more than 90% of immu-nodeficient mice. Moreover,removal of primary tumors from LV-iPSC progeny-transplanted hosts generated secondary and metastatic tumors. Combined transgene-free (TGF) reprogramming and elimination of residual pluripotent cells by enzymatic dissociation ensured tumor-free transplanta-tion,ultimately enabling regeneration of type 1 diabetes-specific human islet structures in vivo. The incidence of tumor formation in TGF-iPSCs was titratable,depending on the oncogenic load,with reintegration of the cMYC expressing vector abolishing tumor-free transplantation. Thus,transgene-free cMYC-independent reprogramming and elimination of residual pluripotent cells are mandatory steps in achieving transplantation of iPSC progeny for customized and safe islet regeneration in vivo. STEM CELLS TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE 2016;5:694–702 SIGNIFICANCE Pluripotent stem cell therapy for diabetes relies on the safety as well as the quality of derived insulin-producing cells. Data from this study highlight prominent tumorigenic risks of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) products,especially when reprogrammed with integrating vectors. Two major under-lying mechanisms in iPSC tumorigenicity are residual pluripotent cells and cMYC overload by vector integration. This study also demonstrated that combined transgene-free reprogramming and enzy-matic dissociation allows teratoma-free transplantation of iPSC progeny in the mouse model in test-ing the tumorigenicity of iPSC products. Further safety assessment and improvement in iPSC specification into a mature b cell phenotype would lead to safe islet replacement therapy for diabetes. View Publication

BACKGROUND The clinical use of doxorubicin is limited by cardiotoxicity. Histopathological changes include interstitial myocardial fibrosis and the appearance of vacuolated cardiomyocytes. Whereas dysregulation of autophagy in the myocardium has been implicated in a variety of cardiovascular diseases,the role of autophagy in doxorubicin cardiomyopathy remains poorly defined. METHODS AND RESULTS Most models of doxorubicin cardiotoxicity involve intraperitoneal injection of high-dose drug,which elicits lethargy,anorexia,weight loss,and peritoneal fibrosis,all of which confound the interpretation of autophagy. Given this,we first established a model that provokes modest and progressive cardiotoxicity without constitutional symptoms,reminiscent of the effects seen in patients. We report that doxorubicin blocks cardiomyocyte autophagic flux in vivo and in cardiomyocytes in culture. This block was accompanied by robust accumulation of undegraded autolysosomes. We go on to localize the site of block as a defect in lysosome acidification. To test the functional relevance of doxorubicin-triggered autolysosome accumulation,we studied animals with diminished autophagic activity resulting from haploinsufficiency for Beclin 1. Beclin 1(+/-) mice exposed to doxorubicin were protected in terms of structural and functional changes within the myocardium. Conversely,animals overexpressing Beclin 1 manifested an amplified cardiotoxic response. CONCLUSIONS Doxorubicin blocks autophagic flux in cardiomyocytes by impairing lysosome acidification and lysosomal function. Reducing autophagy initiation protects against doxorubicin cardiotoxicity. View Publication

BACKGROUND Self-renewing,chemoresistant breast cancer stem cells are believed to contribute significantly to cancer invasion,migration and patient relapse. Therefore,the identification of signaling pathways that regulate the acquisition of stem-like qualities is an important step towards understanding why patients relapse and towards development of novel therapeutics that specifically target cancer stem cell vulnerabilities. Recent studies identified a role for the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR),an environmental carcinogen receptor implicated in cancer initiation,in normal tissue-specific stem cell self-renewal. These studies inspired the hypothesis that the AHR plays a role in the acquisition of cancer stem cell-like qualities. RESULTS To test this hypothesis,AHR activity in Hs578T triple negative and SUM149 inflammatory breast cancer cells were modulated with AHR ligands,shRNA or AHR-specific inhibitors,and phenotypic,genomic and functional stem cell-associated characteristics were evaluated. The data demonstrate that (1) ALDH(high) cells express elevated levels of Ahr and Cyp1b1 and Cyp1a1,AHR-driven genes,(2) AHR knockdown reduces ALDH activity by 80%,(3) AHR hyper-activation with several ligands,including environmental ligands,significantly increases ALDH1 activity,expression of stem cell- and invasion/migration-associated genes,and accelerates cell migration,(4) a significant correlation between Ahr or Cyp1b1 expression (as a surrogate marker for AHR activity) and expression of stem cell- and invasion/migration-associated gene sets is seen with genomic data obtained from 79 human breast cancer cell lines and over 1,850 primary human breast cancers,(5) the AHR interacts directly with Sox2,a master regulator of self-renewal; AHR ligands increase this interaction and nuclear SOX2 translocation,(6) AHR knockdown inhibits tumorsphere formation in low adherence conditions,(7) AHR inhibition blocks the rapid migration of ALDH(high) cells and reduces ALDH(high) cell chemoresistance,(8) ALDH(high) cells are highly efficient at initiating tumors in orthotopic xenografts,and (9) AHR knockdown inhibits tumor initiation and reduces tumor Aldh1a1,Sox2,and Cyp1b1 expression in vivo. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that the AHR plays an important role in development of cells with cancer stem cell-like qualities and that environmental AHR ligands may exacerbate breast cancer by enhancing expression of these properties. View Publication

B cell dysregulation in aging is thought to mostly occur in conventional B2 cells without affecting innate B1 cells. Elderly humans and mice also accumulate 4-1BBL(+)MHC class-I(Hi)CD86(Hi)B cells of unknown origin. In this article,we report that these cells,termed 4BL cells,are activated murine and possibly human B1a cells. The activation is mediated by aging human monocytes and murine peritoneal macrophages. They induce expression and activation of 4-1BBL and IFN-γR1 on B1a cells to subsequently upregulate membrane TNF-α and CD86. As a result,activated B1a/4BL cells induce expression of granzyme B in CD8(+)T cells by targeting TNFR2 via membrane TNF-α and providing costimulation with CD86. Thus,for the first time,to our knowledge,these results indicate that aging affects the function of B1a cells. Upon aging,these cells lose their tumor-supporting activity and become inducers of potentially antitumor and autoimmune CD8(+)T cells. View Publication

Cell replacement therapy with human pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons has the potential to ameliorate neurodegenerative dysfunction and central nervous system injuries,but reprogrammed neurons are dissociated and spatially disorganized during transplantation,rendering poor cell survival,functionality and engraftment in vivo. Here,we present the design of three-dimensional (3D) microtopographic scaffolds,using tunable electrospun microfibrous polymeric substrates that promote in situ stem cell neuronal reprogramming,neural network establishment and support neuronal engraftment into the brain. Scaffold-supported,reprogrammed neuronal networks were successfully grafted into organotypic hippocampal brain slices,showing an ∼3.5-fold improvement in neurite outgrowth and increased action potential firing relative to injected isolated cells. Transplantation of scaffold-supported neuronal networks into mouse brain striatum improved survival ∼38-fold at the injection site relative to injected isolated cells,and allowed delivery of multiple neuronal subtypes. Thus,3D microscale biomaterials represent a promising platform for the transplantation of therapeutic human neurons with broad neuro-regenerative relevance. View Publication

Alterations in DNA damage response and repair have been observed in Huntington's disease (HD). We generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from primary dermal fibroblasts of 5 patients with HD and 5 control subjects. A significant fraction of the HD iPSC lines had genomic abnormalities as assessed by karyotype analysis,while none of our control lines had detectable genomic abnormalities. We demonstrate a statistically significant increase in genomic instability in HD cells during reprogramming. We also report a significant association with repeat length and severity of this instability. Our karyotypically normal HD iPSCs also have elevated ATM-p53 signaling as shown by elevated levels of phosphorylated p53 and H2AX,indicating either elevated DNA damage or hypersensitive DNA damage signaling in HD iPSCs. Thus,increased DNA damage responses in the HD genotype is coincidental with the observed chromosomal aberrations. We conclude that the disease causing mutation in HD increases the propensity of chromosomal instability relative to control fibroblasts specifically during reprogramming to a pluripotent state by a commonly used episomal-based method that includes p53 knockdown. View Publication

CD8(+) T cells have a central role in antitumour immunity,but their activity is suppressed in the tumour microenvironment. Reactivating the cytotoxicity of CD8(+) T cells is of great clinical interest in cancer immunotherapy. Here we report a new mechanism by which the antitumour response of mouse CD8(+) T cells can be potentiated by modulating cholesterol metabolism. Inhibiting cholesterol esterification in T cells by genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition of ACAT1,a key cholesterol esterification enzyme,led to potentiated effector function and enhanced proliferation of CD8(+) but not CD4(+) T cells. This is due to the increase in the plasma membrane cholesterol level of CD8(+) T cells,which causes enhanced T-cell receptor clustering and signalling as well as more efficient formation of the immunological synapse. ACAT1-deficient CD8(+) T cells were better than wild-type CD8(+) T cells at controlling melanoma growth and metastasis in mice. We used the ACAT inhibitor avasimibe,which was previously tested in clinical trials for treating atherosclerosis and showed a good human safety profile,to treat melanoma in mice and observed a good antitumour effect. A combined therapy of avasimibe plus an anti-PD-1 antibody showed better efficacy than monotherapies in controlling tumour progression. ACAT1,an established target for atherosclerosis,is therefore also a potential target for cancer immunotherapy. View Publication

Diploidy is a fundamental genetic feature in mammals,in which haploid cells normally arise only as post-meiotic germ cells that serve to ensure a diploid genome upon fertilization. Gamete manipulation has yielded haploid embryonic stem (ES) cells from several mammalian species,but haploid human ES cells have yet to be reported. Here we generated and analysed a collection of human parthenogenetic ES cell lines originating from haploid oocytes,leading to the successful isolation and maintenance of human ES cell lines with a normal haploid karyotype. Haploid human ES cells exhibited typical pluripotent stem cell characteristics,such as self-renewal capacity and a pluripotency-specific molecular signature. Moreover,we demonstrated the utility of these cells as a platform for loss-of-function genetic screening. Although haploid human ES cells resembled their diploid counterparts,they also displayed distinct properties including differential regulation of X chromosome inactivation and of genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation,alongside reduction in absolute gene expression levels and cell size. Surprisingly,we found that a haploid human genome is compatible not only with the undifferentiated pluripotent state,but also with differentiated somatic fates representing all three embryonic germ layers both in vitro and in vivo,despite a persistent dosage imbalance between the autosomes and X chromosome. We expect that haploid human ES cells will provide novel means for studying human functional genomics and development. View Publication

The advent of super-resolution imaging (SRI) has created a need for optimized labelling strategies. We present a new method relying on fluorophore-conjugated monomeric streptavidin (mSA) to label membrane proteins carrying a short,enzymatically biotinylated tag,compatible with SRI techniques including uPAINT,STED and dSTORM. We demonstrate efficient and specific labelling of target proteins in confined intercellular and organotypic tissues,with reduced steric hindrance and no crosslinking compared with multivalent probes. We use mSA to decipher the dynamics and nanoscale organization of the synaptic adhesion molecules neurexin-1β,neuroligin-1 (Nlg1) and leucine-rich-repeat transmembrane protein 2 (LRRTM2) in a dual-colour configuration with GFP nanobody,and show that these proteins are diffusionally trapped at synapses where they form apposed trans-synaptic adhesive structures. Furthermore,Nlg1 is dynamic,disperse and sensitive to synaptic stimulation,whereas LRRTM2 is organized in compact and stable nanodomains. Thus,mSA is a versatile tool to image membrane proteins at high resolution in complex live environments,providing novel information about the nano-organization of biological structures. View Publication

Freshly isolated human adult hepatocytes are considered to be the gold standard tool for in vitro studies. However,primary hepatocyte scarcity,cell cycle arrest and the rapid loss of cell phenotype limit their widespread deployment. Human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells provide renewable sources of hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs). Despite the use of various differentiation methodologies,HLCs like primary human hepatocytes exhibit unstable phenotype in culture. It has been shown that the functional capacity can be improved by adding back elements of human physiology,such as cell co-culture or through the use of natural and/or synthetic surfaces. In this study,the effect of fluid shear stress on HLC performance was investigated. We studied two important liver functions,cytochrome P450 drug metabolism and serum protein secretion,in static cultures and those exposed to fluid shear stress. Our study demonstrates that fluid shear stress improved Cyp1A2 activity by approximately fivefold. This was paralleled by an approximate ninefold increase in sensitivity to a drug,primarily metabolised by Cyp2D6. In addition to metabolic capacity,fluid shear stress also improved hepatocyte phenotype with an approximate fourfold reduction in the secretion of a foetal marker,alpha-fetoprotein. We believe these studies highlight the importance of introducing physiologic cues in cell-based models to improve somatic cell phenotype. View Publication

HIV-infected slow progressors (SP) represent a heterogeneous group of subjects who spontaneously control HIV infection without treatment for several years while showing moderate signs of disease progression. Under conditions that remain poorly understood,a subgroup of these subjects experience failure of spontaneous immunological and virological control. Here we determined the frequency of SP subjects who showed loss of HIV control within our Canadian Cohort of HIV(+) Slow Progressors and identified the proinflammatory cytokine IL-32 as a robust biomarker for control failure. Plasmatic levels of the proinflammatory isoforms of IL-32 (mainly β and γ) at earlier clinic visits positively correlated with the decline of CD4 T-cell counts,increased viral load,lower CD4/CD8 ratio and levels of inflammatory markers (sCD14 and IL-6) at later clinic visits. We present here a proof-of-concept for the use of IL-32 as a predictive biomarker for disease progression in SP subjects and identify IL-32 as a potential therapeutic target. View Publication