技术资料

The derivation of three-dimensional (3D) stratified neural retina from pluripotent stem cells has permitted investigations of human photoreceptors. We have generated a H9 human embryonic stem cell subclone that carries a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter under the control of the promoter of cone-rod homeobox (CRX),an established marker of postmitotic photoreceptor precursors. The CRXp-GFP reporter replicates endogenous CRX expression in vitro when the H9 subclone is induced to form self-organizing 3D retina-like tissue. At day 37,CRX+ photoreceptors appear in the basal or middle part of neural retina and migrate to apical side by day 67. Temporal and spatial patterns of retinal cell type markers recapitulate the predicted sequence of development. Cone gene expression is concomitant with CRX,whereas rod differentiation factor neural retina leucine zipper protein (NRL) is first observed at day 67. At day 90,robust expression of NRL and its target nuclear receptor NR2E3 is evident in many CRX+ cells,while minimal S-opsin and no rhodopsin or L/M-opsin is present. The transcriptome profile,by RNA-seq,of developing human photoreceptors is remarkably concordant with mRNA and immunohistochemistry data available for human fetal retina although many targets of CRX,including phototransduction genes,exhibit a significant delay in expression. We report on temporal changes in gene signatures,including expression of cell surface markers and transcription factors; these expression changes should assist in isolation of photoreceptors at distinct stages of differentiation and in delineating coexpression networks. Our studies establish the first global expression database of developing human photoreceptors,providing a reference map for functional studies in retinal cultures. View Publication

Fibroblasts from patients with Type I bipolar disorder (BPD) and their unaffected siblings were obtained from an Old Order Amish pedigree with a high incidence of BPD and reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Established iPSCs were subsequently differentiated into neuroprogenitors (NPs) and then to neurons. Transcriptomic microarray analysis was conducted on RNA samples from iPSCs,NPs and neurons matured in culture for either 2 weeks (termed early neurons,E) or 4 weeks (termed late neurons,L). Global RNA profiling indicated that BPD and control iPSCs differentiated into NPs and neurons at a similar rate,enabling studies of differentially expressed genes in neurons from controls and BPD cases. Significant disease-associated differences in gene expression were observed only in L neurons. Specifically,328 genes were differentially expressed between BPD and control L neurons including GAD1,glutamate decarboxylase 1 (2.5 fold) and SCN4B,the voltage gated type IV sodium channel beta subunit (-14.6 fold). Quantitative RT-PCR confirmed the up-regulation of GAD1 in BPD compared to control L neurons. Gene Ontology,GeneGo and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis of differentially regulated genes in L neurons suggest that alterations in RNA biosynthesis and metabolism,protein trafficking as well as receptor signaling pathways may play an important role in the pathophysiology of BPD. View Publication

Efficient gene transfer into human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is an important goal in the study of the hematopoietic system as well as for gene therapy of hematopoietic disorders. A lentiviral vector based on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was able to transduce human CD34+ cells capable of stable,long-term reconstitution of nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice. High-efficiency transduction occurred in the absence of cytokine stimulation and resulted in transgene expression in multiple lineages of human hematopoietic cells for up to 22 weeks after transplantation. View Publication

The effort and cost of obtaining neurons for large-scale screens has limited drug discovery in neuroscience. To overcome these obstacles,we fabricated arrays of releasable polystyrene micro-rafts to generate thousands of uniform,mobile neuron mini-cultures. These mini-cultures sustain synaptically-active neurons which can be easily transferred,thus increasing screening throughput by textgreater30-fold. Compared to conventional methods,micro-raft cultures exhibited significantly improved neuronal viability and sample-to-sample consistency. We validated the screening utility of these mini-cultures for both mouse neurons and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons by successfully detecting disease-related defects in synaptic transmission and identifying candidate small molecule therapeutics. This affordable high-throughput approach has the potential to transform drug discovery in neuroscience. View Publication

The chimeric transcription factor E2a-Hlf is an oncoprotein associated with a subset of acute lymphoblastic leukemias of early B-lineage derivation. We employed a retroviral transduction-transplantation approach to evaluate the oncogenic effects of E2a-Hlf on murine B-cell progenitors harvested from adult bone marrow. Expression of E2a-Hlf induced short-lived clusters of primary hematopoietic cells but no long-term growth on preformed bone marrow stromal cell layers comprised of the AC6.21 cell line. Coexpression with Bcl-2,however,resulted in the sustained self-renewal of early preB-I cells that required stromal and interleukin-7 (IL-7) support for growth in vitro. Immortalized cells were unable to induce leukemias after transplantation into nonirradiated syngeneic hosts,unlike the leukemic properties and cytokine independence of preB-I cells transformed by p190(Bcr-Abl) under identical in vitro conditions. However,bone marrow cells expressing E2a-Hlf in combination with Bcl-2,but not E2a-Hlf alone,induced leukemias in irradiated recipients with long latencies,demonstrating both a requirement for suppression of apoptosis and the need for further secondary mutations in leukemia pathogenesis. Coexpression of IL-7 substituted for Bcl-2 to induce the in vitro growth of pre-B cells expressing E2a-Hlf,but leukemic conversion required additional abrogation of undefined stromal requirements and was associated with alterations in the Arf/Mdm2/p53 pathway. Thus,E2a-Hlf enhances the self-renewal of bone marrow B-cell progenitors without inciting a p53 tumor surveillance response or abrogating stromal and cytokine requirements for growth,which are nevertheless abrogated during progression to a leukemogenic phenotype. View Publication

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The nuclear proto-oncogene c-myb plays crucial roles in the growth,survival,and differentiation of hematopoietic cells. We established three lines of erythropoietin receptor-transgenic mice and found that one of them exhibited anemia,thrombocythemia,and splenomegaly. These abnormalities were independent of the function of the transgenic erythropoietin receptor and were observed exclusively in mice harboring the transgene homozygously,suggesting transgenic disruption of a certain gene. The transgene was inserted 77 kb upstream of the c-myb gene,and c-Myb expression was markedly decreased in megakaryocyte/erythrocyte lineage-restricted progenitors (MEPs) of the homozygous mutant mice. In the bone marrows and spleens of the mutant mice,numbers of megakaryocytes were increased and numbers of erythroid progenitors were decreased. These abnormalities were reproducible in vitro in a coculture assay of MEPs with OP9 cells but eliminated by the retroviral expression of c-Myb in MEPs. The erythroid/megakaryocytic abnormalities were reconstituted in mice in vivo by transplantation of mutant mouse bone marrow cells. These results demonstrate that the transgene insertion into the c-myb gene far upstream regulatory region affects the gene expression at the stage of MEPs,leading to an imbalance between erythroid and megakaryocytic cells,and suggest that c-Myb is an essential regulator of the erythroid-megakaryocytic lineage bifurcation. View Publication

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have enormous potential in regenerative medicine and disease modeling. It is now felt that clinical trials should be performed with iPSCs derived with non-integrative constructs. Numerous studies,however,including those describing disease models,are still being published using cells derived from iPSCs generated with integrative constructs. Our experimental work presents the first evidence of spontaneous transgene reactivation in vitro in several cellular types. Our results show that the transgenes were predominantly silent in parent iPSCs,but in mesenchymal and endothelial iPSC derivatives,the transgenes experienced random up-regulation of Nanog and c-Myc. Additionally,we provide evidence of spontaneous secondary reprogramming and reversion to pluripotency in mesenchymal stem cells derived from iPSCs. These findings strongly suggest that the studies,which utilize cellular products derived from iPSCs generated with retro- or lentiviruses,should be evaluated with consideration of the possibility of transgene reactivation. The in vitro model described here provides insight into the earliest events of culture transformation and suggests the hypothesis that reversion to pluripotency may be responsible for the development of tumors in cell replacement experiments. The main goal of this work,however,is to communicate the possibility of transgene reactivation in retro- or lenti- iPSC derivatives and the associated loss of cellular fidelity in vitro,which may impact the outcomes of disease modeling and related experimentation. View Publication

Demonstrates efficient reprogramming of iPS cells from CD34+ stem cells enriched from a small volume of peripheral blood. View Publication

The JAK2(V617F) mutation was found in most patients with myeloproliferative disorders (MPDs),including polycythemia vera,essential thrombocythemia,and primary myelofibrosis. We have generated transgenic mice expressing the mutated enzyme in the hematopoietic system driven by a vav gene promoter. The mice are viable and fertile. One line of the transgenic mice,which expressed a lower level of JAK2(V617F),showed moderate elevations of blood cell counts,whereas another line with a higher level of JAK2(V617F) expression displayed marked increases in blood counts and developed phenotypes that closely resembled human essential thrombocythemia and polycythemia vera. The latter line of mice also developed primary myelofibrosis-like symptoms as they aged. The transgenic mice showed erythroid,megakaryocytic,and granulocytic hyperplasia in the bone marrow and spleen,displayed splenomegaly,and had reduced levels of plasma erythropoietin and thrombopoietin. They possessed an increased number of hematopoietic progenitor cells in peripheral blood,spleen,and bone marrow,and these cells formed autonomous colonies in the absence of growth factors and cytokines. The data show that JAK2(V617F) can cause MPDs in mice. Our study thus provides a mouse model to study the pathologic role of JAK2(V617F) and to develop treatment for MPDs. View Publication

Optimization of pluripotent stem cell expansion and differentiation is facilitated by biological tools that permit non-invasive and dynamic monitoring of pluripotency,and the ability to select for an undifferentiated input cell population. Here we report on the generation and characterisation of clonal human embryonic stem (HES3,H9) and human induced pluripotent stem cell lines (UQEW01i-epifibC11) that have been stably modified with an artificial EOS(C3+) promoter driving expression of EGFP and puromycin resistance-conferring proteins. We show that EGFP expression faithfully reports on the pluripotency status of the cells in these lines and that antibiotic selection allows for an efficient elimination of differentiated cells from the cultures. We demonstrate that the extinction of the expression of the pluripotency reporter during differentiation closely correlates with the decrease in expression of conventional pluripotency markers,such as OCT4 (POU5F1),TRA-1-60 and SSEA4 when screening across conditions with various levels of pluripotency-maintaining or differentiation-inducing signals. We further illustrate the utility of these lines for real-time monitoring of pluripotency in embryoid bodies and microfluidic bioreactors. View Publication

Human (h) induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are a potentially abundant source of blood cells,but how best to select iPSC clones suitable for this purpose from among the many clones that can be simultaneously established from an identical source is not clear. Using an in vitro culture system yielding a hematopoietic niche that concentrates hematopoietic progenitors,we show that the pattern of c-MYC reactivation after reprogramming influences platelet generation from hiPSCs. During differentiation,reduction of c-MYC expression after initial reactivation of c-MYC expression in selected hiPSC clones was associated with more efficient in vitro generation of CD41a(+)CD42b(+) platelets. This effect was recapitulated in virus integration-free hiPSCs using a doxycycline-controlled c-MYC expression vector. In vivo imaging revealed that these CD42b(+) platelets were present in thrombi after laser-induced vessel wall injury. In contrast,sustained and excessive c-MYC expression in megakaryocytes was accompanied by increased p14 (ARF) and p16 (INK4A) expression,decreased GATA1 expression,and impaired production of functional platelets. These findings suggest that the pattern of c-MYC expression,particularly its later decline,is key to producing functional platelets from selected iPSC clones. View Publication