技术资料

OBJECTIVE Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease is a group of inherited peripheral neuropathies associated with mutations or copy number variations in over 70 genes encoding proteins with fundamental roles in the development and function of Schwann cells and peripheral axons. Here,we used iPSC-derived cells to identify common pathophysiological mechanisms in axonal CMT. METHODS iPSC lines from patients with two distinct forms of axonal CMT (CMT2A and CMT2E) were differentiated into spinal cord motor neurons and used to study axonal structure and function and electrophysiological properties in vitro. RESULTS iPSC-derived motor neurons exhibited gene and protein expression,ultrastructural and electrophysiological features of mature primary spinal cord motor neurons. Cytoskeletal abnormalities were found in neurons from a CMT2E (NEFL) patient and corroborated by a mouse model of the same NEFL point mutation. Abnormalities in mitochondrial trafficking were found in neurons derived from this patient,but were only mildly present in neurons from a CMT2A (MFN2) patient. Novel electrophysiological abnormalities,including reduced action potential threshold and abnormal channel current properties were observed in motor neurons derived from both of these patients. INTERPRETATION Human iPSC-derived motor neurons from axonal CMT patients replicated key pathophysiological features observed in other models of MFN2 and NEFL mutations,including abnormal cytoskeletal and mitochondrial dynamics. Electrophysiological abnormalities found in axonal CMT iPSC-derived human motor neurons suggest that these cells are hyperexcitable and have altered sodium and calcium channel kinetics. These findings may provide a new therapeutic target for this group of heterogeneous inherited neuropathies. View Publication

Safety and reliability of transgene integration in human genome continue to pose challenges for stem cell-based gene therapy. Here,we report a baculovirus-transcription activator-like effector nuclease system for AAVS1 locus-directed homologous recombination in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This viral system,when optimized in human U87 cells,provided a targeted integration efficiency of 95.21% in incorporating a Neo-eGFP cassette and was able to mediate integration of DNA insert up to 13.5 kb. In iPSCs,targeted integration with persistent transgene expression was achieved without compromising genomic stability. The modified iPSCs continued to express stem cell pluripotency markers and maintained the ability to differentiate into three germ lineages in derived embryoid bodies. Using a baculovirus-Cre/LoxP system in the iPSCs,the Neo-eGFP cassette at the AAVS1 locus could be replaced by a Hygro-mCherry cassette,demonstrating the feasibility of cassette exchange. Moreover,as assessed by measuring γ-H2AX expression levels,genome toxicity associated with chromosomal double-strand breaks was not detectable after transduction with moderate doses of baculoviral vectors expressing transcription activator-like effector nucleases. Given high targeted integration efficiency,flexibility in transgene exchange and low genome toxicity,our baculoviral transduction-based approach offers great potential and attractive option for precise genetic manipulation in human pluripotent stem cells. View Publication

Self-renewal is a complex biological process necessary for maintaining the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Recent studies have used global proteomic techniques to identify proteins that associate with the master regulators Oct4,Nanog and Sox2 in ESCs or in ESCs during the early stages of differentiation. Through an unbiased proteomic screen,Banf1 was identified as a Sox2-associated protein. Banf1 has been shown to be essential for worm and fly development but,until now,its role in mammalian development and ESCs has not been explored. In this study,we examined the effect of knocking down Banf1 on ESCs. We demonstrate that the knockdown of Banf1 promotes the differentiation of mouse ESCs and decreases the survival of both mouse and human ESCs. For mouse ESCs,we demonstrate that knocking down Banf1 promotes their differentiation into cells that exhibit markers primarily associated with mesoderm and trophectoderm. Interestingly,knockdown of Banf1 disrupts the survival of human ESCs without significantly reducing the expression levels of the master regulators Sox2,Oct4 and Nanog or inducing the expression of markers of differentiation. Furthermore,we determined that the knockdown of Banf1 alters the cell cycle distribution of both human and mouse ESCs by causing an uncharacteristic increase in the proportion of cells in the G2-M phase of the cell cycle. View Publication

AIM The optimal balance between histone acetylation and deacetylation is important for proper gene function. Therefore,we addressed how inhibitors of histone-modifying enzymes can modulate nuclear events,including replication,transcription,splicing and DNA repair. MATERIALS & METHODS Changes in cell signaling pathways upon treatment with histone acetyltransferases and/or histone deacetylase inhibitors were studied by cDNA microarrays and western blots. RESULTS We analyzed the effects of the histone deacetylase inhibitor suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) and the histone acetylase inhibitor MG149. SAHA altered the expression of factors involved in DNA replication complexes,basal transcription and the spliceosome pathway. DNA repair-related genes,including Rad51,Rad54 and BRCA2,were significantly downregulated by SAHA. However,MG149 had no effect on the investigated nuclear processes,with the exception of the spliceosome network and Sestrins,involved in DNA repair. CONCLUSION Based on our results,we propose that the studied epigenetic drugs have the distinct potential to affect specific cell signaling pathways depending on their respective molecular targets. View Publication

Summary Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) regularly acquire nonrandom genomic aberrations during culture,raising concerns about their safe therapeutic application. The International Stem Cell Initiative identified a copy number variant (CNV) amplification of chromosome 20q11.21 in 25% of hESC lines displaying a normal karyotype. By comparing four cell lines paired for the presence or absence of this CNV,we show that those containing this amplicon have higher population doubling rates,attributable to enhanced cell survival through resistance to apoptosis. Of the three genes encoded within the minimal amplicon and expressed in hESCs,only overexpression of BCL2L1 (BCL-XL isoform) provides control cells with growth characteristics similar to those of CNV-containing cells,whereas inhibition of BCL-XL suppresses the growth advantage of CNV cells,establishing BCL2L1 as a driver mutation. Amplification of the 20q11.21 region is also detectable in human embryonal carcinoma cell lines and some teratocarcinomas,linking this mutation with malignant transformation. View Publication

Decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) has been detected in human serum,semen,placenta,cord blood and milk worldwide. However,little is known regarding the potential effects on the early human embryonic development of BDE-209. In this study,human embryonic stem cell lines FY-hES-10 and FY-hES-26 were used to evaluate the potential effects and explore the toxification mechanisms using low-level BDE-209 exposure. Our data showed that BDE-209 exposure (1,10 and 100 nM) reduced the expression of pluripotent genes such as OCT4,SOX2 and NANOG and induced human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) apoptosis. The downregulation of BIRC5/BCL2 and upregulation of BAX were related to apoptosis of hESCs induced by BDE-209 exposure. A mechanism study showed that OCT4 down-regulation accompanied by OCT4 promoter hypermethylation and increasing miR-145/miR-335 levels,OCT4 inhibitors. Moreover,BDE-209 could increase the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and decrease SOD2 expression. The ROS increase and OCT4 downregulation after BDE-209 exposure could be reversed partly by antioxidant N-acetylcysteine supplement. These findings showed that BDE-209 exposure could decrease pluripotent genes expression via epigenetic regulation and induce apoptosis through ROS generation in human embryonic stem cells in vitro. View Publication

Pediatric-onset ataxias often present clinically as developmental delay and intellectual disability,with prominent cerebellar atrophy as a key neuroradiographic finding. Here we describe a new clinically distinguishable recessive syndrome in 12 families with cerebellar atrophy together with ataxia,coarsened facial features and intellectual disability,due to truncating mutations in the sorting nexin gene SNX14,encoding a ubiquitously expressed modular PX domain-containing sorting factor. We found SNX14 localized to lysosomes and associated with phosphatidylinositol (3,5)-bisphosphate,a key component of late endosomes/lysosomes. Patient-derived cells showed engorged lysosomes and a slower autophagosome clearance rate upon autophagy induction by starvation. Zebrafish morphants for snx14 showed dramatic loss of cerebellar parenchyma,accumulation of autophagosomes and activation of apoptosis. Our results characterize a unique ataxia syndrome due to biallelic SNX14 mutations leading to lysosome-autophagosome dysfunction. View Publication

This paper proposes a bio-driven algorithm that detects cell regions automatically in the human embryonic stem cell (hESC) images obtained using a phase contrast microscope. The algorithm uses both statistical intensity distributions of foreground/hESCs and background/substrate as well as cell property for cell region detection. The intensity distributions of foreground/hESCs and background/substrate are modeled as a mixture of two Gaussians. The cell property is translated into local spatial information. The algorithm is optimized by parameters of the modeled distributions and cell regions evolve with the local cell property. The paper validates the method with various videos acquired using different microscope objectives. In comparison with the state-of-the-art methods,the proposed method is able to detect the entire cell region instead of fragmented cell regions. It also yields high marks on measures such as Jacard similarity,Dice coefficient,sensitivity and specificity. Automated detection by the proposed method has the potential to enable fast quantifiable analysis of hESCs using large data sets which are needed to understand dynamic cell behaviors. View Publication

Current protocols for human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) expansion require feeder cells or matrices from animal sources that have been the major obstacle to obtain clinical grade hPSCs due to safety issues,difficulty in quality control,and high expense. Thus,feeder-free,chemically defined synthetic platforms have been developed,but are mostly confined to typical polystyrene culture plates. Here,we report a chemically defined,material-independent,bio-inspired surface coating allowing for feeder-free expansion and maintenance of self-renewal and pluripotency of hPSCs on various polymer substrates and devices. Polydopamine (pDA)-mediated immobilization of vitronectin (VN) peptides results in surface functionalization of VN-dimer/pDA conjugates. The engineered surfaces facilitate adhesion,proliferation,and colony formation of hPSCs via enhanced focal adhesion,cell-cell interaction,and biophysical signals,providing a chemically defined,xeno-free culture system for clonal expansion and long-term maintenance of hPSCs. This surface engineering enables the application of clinically-relevant hPSCs to a variety of biomedical systems such as tissue-engineering scaffolds and medical devices. View Publication

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been demonstrated to result in premature aging due to its effects on stem cells. Nevertheless,a full understanding of the role of mitochondrial bioenergetics through differentiation is still lacking. Here we show the bioenergetics profile of human stem cells of embryonic origin differentiating along the hepatic lineage. Our study reveals especially the transition between hepatic specification and hepatic maturation as dependent on mitochondrial respiration and demonstrates that even though differentiating cells are primarily dependent on glycolysis until induction of hepatocyte maturation,oxidative phosphorylation is essential at all stages of differentiation. View Publication

Myocardial infarction is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide,and current treatments fail to address the underlying scarring and cell loss,which is a major cause of heart failure after infarction. The novel strategy,therapeutic angiogenesis and/or vasculogenesis with endothelial progenitor cells transplantation holds great promise to increase blood flow in ischemic areas,thus rebuild the injured heart and reverse the heart failure. Given the potential of self-renewal and differentiation into virtually all cell types,human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) may provide an alternate source of therapeutic cells by allowing the derivation of large numbers of endothelial cells for therapeutic angiogenesis and/or vasculogenesis of ischemic heart diseases. Moreover,to fully understand the fate of implanted hESCs or hESC derivatives,investigators need to monitor the motility of cells in living animals over time. In this chapter,we describe the application of bioluminescence reporter gene imaging to track the transplanted hESC-derived endothelial cells for treatment of myocardial infarction. The technology of inducing endothelial cells from hESCs will also be discussed. View Publication