技术资料

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs),including both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells,possess the unique ability to readily differentiate into any cell type of the body,including cells of the retina. Although previous studies have demonstrated the ability to differentiate hPSCs to a retinal lineage,the ability to derive retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) from hPSCs has been complicated by the lack of specific markers with which to identify these cells from a pluripotent source. In the current study,the definitive identification of hPSC-derived RGCs was accomplished by their directed,stepwise differentiation through an enriched retinal progenitor intermediary,with resultant RGCs expressing a full complement of associated features and proper functional characteristics. These results served as the basis for the establishment of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from a patient with a genetically inherited form of glaucoma,which results in damage and loss of RGCs. Patient-derived RGCs specifically exhibited a dramatic increase in apoptosis,similar to the targeted loss of RGCs in glaucoma,which was significantly rescued by the addition of candidate neuroprotective factors. Thus,the current study serves to establish a method by which to definitively acquire and identify RGCs from hPSCs and demonstrates the ability of hPSCs to serve as an effective in vitro model of disease progression. Moreover,iPSC-derived RGCs can be utilized for future drug screening approaches to identify targets for the treatment of glaucoma and other optic neuropathies. Stem Cells 2016. View Publication

Until recently,culturing human pluripotent stem cells was hampered by three prominent technical problems: a high degree of unwanted cellular stress when the cells are passaged,unacceptably low cloning efficiency and poor recovery of cryopreserved stocks. This review discusses recent developments that address these problems. A major focus of the review is the use of p160 Rho-associated coiled-coil kinase inhibitors for improving both the cloning efficiency and the recovery of cryopreserved human embryonic stem cells and human induced pluripotent stem cells. An underlying theme of this review is that the three problems have a common cause: separation of human pluripotent stem cells from one another increases cellular stress,which greatly decreases their viability unless special steps are taken. View Publication

The sodium-iodine symporter (NIS) is expressed on the cell membrane of many thyroid cancer cells,and is responsible for the radioactive iodine accumulation. However,treatment of anaplastic thyroid cancer is ineffective due to the low expression of NIS on cell membranes of these tumor cells. Human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) provide a potential vehicle to study the mechanisms of NIS expression regulation during differentiation. Human ESCs were maintained on feeder-independent culture conditions. RT-qPCR and immunocytochemistry were used to study differentiation marker expression,(125)I uptake to study NIS function. We designed a two-step protocol for human ESC differentiation into thyroid-like cells,as was previously done for mouse embryonic stem cells. First,we obtained definitive endoderm from human ESCs. Second,we directed differentiation of definitive endoderm cells into thyroid-like cells using various factors,with thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) as the main differentiating factor. Expression of pluripotency,endoderm and thyroid markers and (125)I uptake were monitored throughout the differentiation steps. These approaches did not result in efficient induction of thyroid-like cells. We conclude that differentiation of human ESCs into thyroid cells cannot be induced by TSH media supplementation alone and most likely involves complicated developmental patterns that are yet to be understood. View Publication

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs),such as embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs),provide a powerful model system for studies of cellular identity and early mammalian development,which hold great promise for regenerative medicine. It is necessary to develop a convenient method to discriminate hPSCs from other cells in clinics and basic research. Herein,a simple and reliable biosensor for stem cell detection was established. In this biosensor system,stage-specific embryonic antigen-3 (SSEA-3) and stage-specific embryonic antigen-4 (SSEA-4) were used to mark human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). Antibody specific for SSEA-3 was coated onto magnetic beads for hPSCs enrichment,and antibody specific for SSEA-4 was conjugated with carboxyl-modified tDNA sequence which was used as template for strand displacement amplification (SDA). The amplified single strand DNA (ssDNA) was detected with a lateral flow biosensor (LFB). This biosensor is capable of detecting a minimum of 19 human embryonic stem cells by a strip reader and 100 human embryonic stem cells by the naked eye within 80min. This approach has also shown excellent specificity to distinguish hPSCs from other types of cells,showing that it is promising for specific and handy detection of human pluripotent stem cells. View Publication

Recent methodological advances have improved the ease and efficiency of generating human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs),but this now typically results in a greater number of hiPSC clones being derived than can be wholly characterized. It is therefore imperative that methods are developed which facilitate rapid selection of hiPSC clones most suited for the downstream research aims. Here we describe a combination of procedures enabling the simultaneous screening of multiple clones to determine their genomic integrity as well as their cardiac differentiation potential within two weeks of the putative reprogrammed colonies initially appearing. By coupling splinkerette-PCR with Ion Torrent sequencing,we could ascertain the number and map the proviral integration sites in lentiviral-reprogrammed hiPSCs. In parallel,we developed an effective cardiac differentiation protocol that generated functional cardiomyocytes within 10 days without requiring line-specific optimization for any of the six independent human pluripotent stem cell lines tested. Finally,to demonstrate the scalable potential of these procedures,we picked 20 nascent iPSC clones and performed these independent assays concurrently. Before the clones required passaging,we were able to identify clones with a single integrated copy of the reprogramming vector and robust cardiac differentiation potential for further analysis. View Publication

Cancer stem cells are known for their inherent resistance to therapy. Here we investigated whether normal stem cells with acquired resistance to stress can be used to identify novel markers of cancer stem cells. For this,we generated a human embryonic stem cell line resistant to Trichostatin A and analyzed changes in its gene expression. The resistant cells over-expressed various genes associated with tumor aggressiveness,many of which are also expressed in the CD133+ glioma cancer stem cells. These findings suggest that stress-resistant stem cells generated in vitro may be useful for the discovery of novel markers of cancer stem cells. View Publication