技术资料

To exploit the full potential of human pluripotent stem cells for regenerative medicine,developmental biology and drug discovery,defined culture conditions are needed. Media of known composition that maintain human embryonic stem (hES) cells have been developed,but finding chemically defined,robust substrata has proven difficult. We used an array of self-assembled monolayers to identify peptide surfaces that sustain pluripotent stem cell self-renewal. The effective substrates displayed heparin-binding peptides,which can interact with cell-surface glycosaminoglycans and could be used with a defined medium to culture hES cells for more than 3 months. The resulting cells maintained a normal karyotype and had high levels of pluripotency markers. The peptides supported growth of eight pluripotent cell lines on a variety of scaffolds. Our results indicate that synthetic substrates that recognize cell-surface glycans can facilitate the long-term culture of pluripotent stem cells. View Publication

Human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) have generated significant interest due to their potential use in clinical applications. hMSCs are present at low frequency in vivo,but after isolation can be expanded considerably,generating clinically useful numbers of cells. In this study,we demonstrate the use of a defined embryonic stem cell expansion medium,mTeSR (Stem Cell Technologies),for the expansion of bone-marrow-derived hMSCs. The hMSCs grow at comparable rates,demonstrate tri-lineage differentiation potential,and show similar surface marker profiles (CD29(+),CD44(+),CD49a(+),CD73(+),CD90(+),CD105(+),CD146(+),CD166(+),CD34(-),and CD45(-)) in both the fetal bovine serum (FBS)-supplemented medium and mTeSR. However,expression of early differentiation transcription factors runt-related transcription factor 2,sex-determining region Y box 9,and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma changed significantly. Both runt-related transcription factor 2 and sex-determining region Y box 9 were upregulated,whereas peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma was downregulated in mTeSR compared with FBS. Although osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation was comparable in cells grown in mTeSR compared to FBS,adipogenic differentiation was significantly decreased in mTeSR-expanded cells,both in terms of gene expression and absolute numbers of adipocytes. The removal of the FBS from the medium and the provision of a defined medium with disclosed composition make mTeSR a superior study platform for hMSC biology in a controlled environment. Further,this provides a key step toward generating a clinical-grade medium for expansion of hMSCs for clinical applications that rely on osteo- and chondroinduction of MSCs,such as bone repair and cartilage generation. View Publication

A defined xeno-free system for patient-specific iPSC derivation and differentiation is required for translation to clinical applications. However,standard somatic cell reprogramming protocols rely on using MEFs and xenogeneic medium,imposing a significant obstacle to clinical translation. Here,we describe a well-defined culture system based on xeno-free media and LN521 substrate which supported i) efficient reprogramming of normal or diseased skin fibroblasts from human of different ages into hiPSCs with a 15-30 fold increase in efficiency over conventional viral vector-based method; ii) long-term self-renewal of hiPSCs; and iii) direct hiPSC lineage-specific differentiation. Using an excisable polycistronic vector and optimized culture conditions,we achieved up to 0.15%-0.3% reprogramming efficiencies. Subsequently,transgene-free hiPSCs were obtained by Cre-mediated excision of the reprogramming factors. The derived iPSCs maintained long-term self-renewal,normal karyotype and pluripotency,as demonstrated by the expression of stem cell markers and ability to form derivatives of three germ layers both in vitro and in vivo. Importantly,we demonstrated that Parkinson's patient transgene-free iPSCs derived using the same system could be directed towards differentiation into dopaminergic neurons under xeno-free culture conditions. Our approach provides a safe and robust platform for the generation of patient-specific iPSCs and derivatives for clinical and translational applications. textcopyright 2013 Elsevier Ltd. View Publication

Human ESC and iPSC are an attractive source of cells of high quantity and purity to be used to elucidate early human development processes,for drug discovery,and in clinical cell therapy applications. To efficiently differentiate pluripotent cells into a pure population of hematopoietic progenitors we have developed a new 2-dimensional,defined and highly efficient protocol that avoids the use of feeder cells,serum or embryoid body formation. Here we showed that a single matrix protein in combination with growth factors and a hypoxic environment is sufficient to generate from pluripotent cells hematopoietic progenitors capable of differentiating further in mature cell types of different lineages of the blood system. We tested the differentiation method using hESCs and 9 iPSC lines generated from different tissues. These data indicate the robustness of the protocol providing a valuable tool for the generation of clinical-grade hematopoietic cells from pluripotent cells. View Publication

Dravet Syndrome is an intractable form of childhood epilepsy associated with deleterious mutations in SCN1A,the gene encoding neuronal sodium channel Nav1.1. Earlier studies using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have produced mixed results regarding the importance of Nav1.1 in human inhibitory versus excitatory neurons. We studied a Nav1.1 mutation (p.S1328P) identified in a pair of twins with Dravet Syndrome and generated iPSC-derived neurons from these patients. Characterization of the mutant channel revealed a decrease in current amplitude and hypersensitivity to steady-state inactivation. We then differentiated Dravet-Syndrome and control iPSCs into telencephalic excitatory neurons or medial ganglionic eminence (MGE)-like inhibitory neurons. Dravet inhibitory neurons showed deficits in sodium currents and action potential firing,which were rescued by a Nav1.1 transgene,whereas Dravet excitatory neurons were normal. Our study identifies biophysical impairments underlying a deleterious Nav1.1 mutation and supports the hypothesis that Dravet Syndrome arises from defective inhibitory neurons. View Publication

Loss-of-function studies are fundamental for dissecting gene function. Yet,methods to rapidly and effectively perturb genes in mammalian cells,and particularly in stem cells,are scarce. Here we present a system for simultaneous conditional regulation of two different proteins in the same mammalian cell. This system harnesses the plant auxin and jasmonate hormone-induced degradation pathways,and is deliverable with only two lentiviral vectors. It combines RNAi-mediated silencing of two endogenous proteins with the expression of two exogenous proteins whose degradation is induced by external ligands in a rapid,reversible,titratable and independent manner. By engineering molecular tuners for NANOG,CHK1,p53 and NOTCH1 in mammalian stem cells,we have validated the applicability of the system and demonstrated its potential to unravel complex biological processes. View Publication

Raman spectra often contain undesirable,randomly positioned,intense,narrow-bandwidth,positive,unidirectional spectral features generated when cosmic rays strike charge-coupled device cameras. These must be removed prior to analysis,but doing so manually is not feasible for large data sets. We developed a quick,simple,effective,semi-automated procedure to remove cosmic ray spikes from spectral data sets that contain large numbers of relatively homogenous spectra. Although some inhomogeneous spectral data sets can be accommodated—it requires replacing excessively modified spectra with the originals and removing their spikes with a median filter instead—caution is advised when processing such data sets. In addition,the technique is suitable for interpolating missing spectra or replacing aberrant spectra with good spectral estimates. The method is applied to baseline-flattened spectra and relies on fitting a third-order (or higher) polynomial through all the spectra at every wavenumber. Pixel intensities in excess of a threshold of 3× the noise standard deviation above the fit are reduced to the threshold level. Because only two parameters (with readily specified default values) might require further adjustment,the method is easily implemented for semi-automated processing of large spectral sets. View Publication

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs),including human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells,are promising for numerous biomedical applications,such as cell replacement therapies,tissue and whole-organ engineering,and high-throughput pharmacology and toxicology screening. Each of these applications requires large numbers of cells of high quality; however,the scalable expansion and differentiation of hPSCs,especially for clinical utilization,remains a challenge. We report a simple,defined,efficient,scalable,and good manufacturing practice-compatible 3D culture system for hPSC expansion and differentiation. It employs a thermoresponsive hydrogel that combines easy manipulation and completely defined conditions,free of any human- or animal-derived factors,and entailing only recombinant protein factors. Under an optimized protocol,the 3D system enables long-term,serial expansion of multiple hPSCs lines with a high expansion rate (∼20-fold per 5-d passage,for a 1072-fold expansion over 280 d),yield (∼2.0 × 107 cells per mL of hydrogel),and purity (∼95% Oct4+),even with single-cell inoculation,all of which offer considerable advantages relative to current approaches. Moreover,the system enabled 3D directed differentiation of hPSCs into multiple lineages,including dopaminergic neuron progenitors with a yield of ∼8 × 107 dopaminergic progenitors per mL of hydrogel and ∼80-fold expansion by the end of a 15-d derivation. This versatile system may be useful at numerous scales,from basic biological investigation to clinical development. View Publication

Ionizing radiation (IR) is a known mutagen that is widely employed for medical diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. To study the extent of genetic variations in DNA caused by IR,we used IR-sensitive human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Four hESC cell lines,H1,H7,H9,and H14,were subjected to IR at 0.2 or 1 Gy dose and then maintained in culture for four days before being harvested for DNA isolation. Irradiation with 1 Gy dose resulted in significant cell death,ranging from 60% to 90% reduction in cell population. Since IR is often implicated as a risk for inducing cancer,a primer pool targeting genomic hotspot" regions that are frequently mutated in human cancer genes was used to generate libraries from irradiated and control samples. Using a semiconductor-based next-generation sequencing approach View Publication

Human embryonic stem (hES) cells show an atypical cell-cycle regulation characterized by a high proliferation rate and a short G1 phase. In fact,a shortened G1 phase might protect ES cells from external signals inducing differentiation,as shown for certain stem cells. It has been suggested that self-renewal and pluripotency are intimately linked to cell-cycle regulation in ES cells,although little is known about the overall importance of the cell-cycle machinery in maintaining ES cell identity. An appealing model to address whether the acquisition of stem cell properties is linked to cell-cycle regulation emerged with the ability to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells by expression of defined transcription factors. Here,we show that the characteristic cell-cycle signature of hES cells is acquired as an early event in cell reprogramming. We demonstrate that induction of cell proliferation increases reprogramming efficiency,whereas cell-cycle arrest inhibits successful reprogramming. Furthermore,we show that cell-cycle arrest is sufficient to drive hES cells toward irreversible differentiation. Our results establish a link that intertwines the mechanisms of cell-cycle control with the mechanisms underlying the acquisition and maintenance of ES cell identity. View Publication