技术资料

The Mesenchymal-to-Epithelial Transition (MET) has been recognized as a crucial step for successful reprogramming of fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Thus,it has been demonstrated,that the efficiency of reprogramming can be enhanced by promoting an epithelial expression program in cells,with a concomitant repression of key mesenchymal genes. However,a detailed characterization of the epithelial transition associated with the acquisition of a pluripotent phenotype is still lacking to this date. Here,we integrate a panel of morphological approaches with gene expression analyses to visualize the dynamics of episomal reprogramming of human fibroblasts to iPSCs. We provide the first ultrastructural analysis of human fibroblasts at various stages of episomal iPSC reprogramming,as well as the first real-time live cell visualization of a MET occurring during reprogramming. The results indicate that the MET manifests itself approximately 6-12. days after electroporation,in synchrony with the upregulation of early pluripotency markers,and resembles a reversal of the Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) which takes place during mammalian gastrulation. View Publication

MicroRNAs (miRNA) comprise a group of short ribonucleic acid molecules implicated in regulation of key biological processes and functions at the post-transcriptional level. Ionizing radiation (IR) causes DNA damage and generally triggers cellular stress response. However,the role of miRNAs in IR-induced response in human embryonic stem cells (hESC) has not been defined yet. Here,by using system biology approaches,we show for the first time,that miRNAome undergoes global alterations in hESC (H1 and H9 lines) after IR. Interrogation of expression levels of 1,090 miRNA species in irradiated hESC showed statistically significant changes in 54 genes following 1 Gy of X-ray exposures; global miRNAome alterations were found to be highly temporally and cell line--dependent in hESC. Time-course studies showed that the 16 hr miRNAome radiation response of hESC is much more robust compared to 2 hr-response signature (only eight genes),and may be involved in regulating the cell cycle. Quantitative real-time PCR performed on some miRNA species confirms the robustness of our miRNA microarray platform. Positive regulation of differentiation-,cell cycle-,ion transport- and endomembrane system-related processes were predicted to be negatively affected by miRNAome changes in irradiated hESC. Our findings reveal a fundamental role of miRNAome in modulating the radiation response,and identify novel molecular targets of radiation in hESC. 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

We have systematically developed single cell-inoculated suspension cultures of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) in defined media. Cell survival was dependent on hESC re-aggregation. In the presence of the Rho kinase inhibitor Y-27632 (Ri) only ∼ 44% of the seeded cells were rescued,but an optimized heat shock treatment combined with Ri significantly increased cell survival to ∼ 60%. Mechanistically,our data suggest that E-cadherin plays a role in hESC aggregation and that dissociation and re-aggregation upon passaging functions as a purification step towards a pluripotency markers-enriched population. Mass expansion of hESC was readily achieved by up-scaling 2 ml cultures to serial passaging in 50 ml spinner flasks. A media comparison revealed that mTeSR was superior to KnockOut-SR in supporting cell proliferation and pluripotency. Persistent expression of pluripotency markers was achieved for two lines (hES2,hES3) that were used at higher passages (textgreater 86). In contrast,rapid down regulation of Oct4,Tra-1-60,and SSEA4 was observed for ESI049,a clinically compliant line,used at passages 20-36. The up-scaling strategy has significant potential to provide pluripotent cells on a clinical scale. Nevertheless,our data also highlights a significant line-to-line variability and the need for a critical assessment of novel methods with numerous relevant cell lines. textcopyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. View Publication

Cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) show great promise as autologous donor cells to treat heart disease. A major technical obstacle to this approach is that available induction methods often produce heterogeneous cell population with low percentage of cardiomyocytes. Here we describe a cardiac enrichment approach using non-integrating adeno-associated virus (AAV). We first examined several AAV serotypes for their ability to selectively transduce iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Result showed that AAV1 demonstrated the highest in vitro transduction efficiency among seven widely used serotypes. Next differentiated iPSC derivatives were transduced with drug-selectable AAV1 expressing neomycin resistance gene. Selection with G418 enriched the cardiac cell fraction from 27% to 57% in two weeks. Compared to other enrichment strategies such as integrative genetic selection,mitochondria labeling or surface marker cell sorting,this simple AAV method described herein bypasses antibody or dye labeling. These findings provide proof-of-concept for large-scale cardiomyocyte enrichment by exploiting AAV's intrinsic tissue tropism. View Publication

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified many disease-associated variant alleles,but understanding whether and how different genes/loci interact requires a platform for probing how the variant alleles act mechanistically. Isogenic mutant human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) provide an unlimited resource to derive and study human disease-relevant cells. Here,we focused on CDKAL1,linked by GWASs to diabetes. Through transcript profiling,we find that expression of the metallothionein (MT) gene family,also linked by GWASs to diabetes,is significantly downregulated in CDKAL1(-/-) cells that have been differentiated to insulin-expressing pancreatic beta-like cells. Forced MT1E expression rescues both hypersensitivity of CDKAL1 mutant cells to glycolipotoxicity and pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction in vitro and in vivo. MT1E functions at least in part through relief of ER stress. This study establishes an isogenic hESC-based platform to study the interaction of GWAS-identified diabetes gene variants and illuminate the molecular network impacting disease progression. View Publication

Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia are amongst the most common forms of dementia characterized by the formation and deposition of abnormal TAU in the brain. In order to develop a translational human TAU aggregation model suitable for screening,we transduced TAU harboring the pro-aggregating P301L mutation into control hiPSC-derived neural progenitor cells followed by differentiation into cortical neurons. TAU aggregation and phosphorylation was quantified using AlphaLISA technology. Although no spontaneous aggregation was observed upon expressing TAU-P301L in neurons,seeding with preformed aggregates consisting of the TAU-microtubule binding repeat domain triggered robust TAU aggregation and hyperphosphorylation already after 2 weeks,without affecting general cell health. To validate our model,activity of two autophagy inducers was tested. Both rapamycin and trehalose significantly reduced TAU aggregation levels suggesting that iPSC-derived neurons allow for the generation of a biologically relevant human Tauopathy model,highly suitable to screen for compounds that modulate TAU aggregation. View Publication

Retinal pigment epithelium-specific 65 kDa (RPE65)-associated Leber congenital amaurosis is an autosomal recessive disease that results in reduced visual acuity and night blindness beginning at birth. It is one of the few retinal degenerative disorders for which promising clinical gene transfer trials are currently underway. However,the ability to enroll patients in a gene augmentation trial is dependent on the identification of 2 bona fide disease-causing mutations,and there are some patients with the phenotype of RPE65-associated disease who might benefit from gene transfer but are ineligible because 2 disease-causing genetic variations have not yet been identified. Some such patients have novel mutations in RPE65 for which pathogenicity is difficult to confirm. The goal of this study was to determine if an intronic mutation identified in a 2-year-old patient with presumed RPE65-associated disease was truly pathogenic and grounds for inclusion in a clinical gene augmentation trial. Sequencing of the RPE65 gene revealed 2 mutations: (1) a previously identified disease-causing exonic leucine-to-proline mutation (L408P) and (2) a novel single point mutation in intron 3 (IVS3-11) resulting in an AtextgreaterG change. RT-PCR analysis using RNA extracted from control human donor eye-derived primary RPE,control iPSC-RPE cells,and proband iPSC-RPE cells revealed that the identified IVS3-11 variation caused a splicing defect that resulted in a frameshift and insertion of a premature stop codon. In this study,we demonstrate how patient-specific iPSCs can be used to confirm pathogenicity of unknown mutations,which can enable positive clinical outcomes. View Publication