Accelerated generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells with retroviral transduction and chemical inhibitors under physiological hypoxia.

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are generated from somatic cells by the forced expression of a defined set of pluripotency-associated transcription factors. Human iPS cells can be propagated indefinitely, while maintaining the capacity to differentiate into all cell types in the body except for extra-embryonic tissues. This technology not only represents a new way to use individual-specific stem cells for regenerative medicine but also constitutes a novel method to obtain large amounts of disease-specific cells for biomedical research. Despite their great potential, the long reprogramming process (up to 1month) remains one of the most significant challenges facing standard virus-mediated methodology. In this study, we report the accelerated generation of human iPS cells from adipose-derived stem (ADS) cells, using a new combination of chemical inhibitors under a setting of physiological hypoxia in conjunction with retroviral transduction of Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and L-Myc. Under optimized conditions, we observed human embryonic stem (ES)-like cells as early as 6 days after the initial retroviral transduction. This was followed by the emergence of fully reprogrammed cells bearing Tra-1-81-positive and DsRed transgene-silencing properties on day 10. The resulting cell lines resembled human ES cells in many respects including proliferation rate, morphology, pluripotency-associated markers, global gene expression patterns, genome-wide DNA methylation states, and the ability to differentiate into all three of the germ layers, both in vitro and in vivo. Our method, when combined with chemical inhibitors under conditions of physiological hypoxia, offers a powerful tool for rapidly generating bona fide human iPS cells and facilitates the application of iPS cell technology to biomedical research.

Shimada H ，Hashimoto Y ，Nakada A ，Shigeno K ，Nakamura T ... -  《-》

Transient folate deprivation in combination with small-molecule compounds facilitates the generation of somatic cell-derived pluripotent stem cells in mice.

Hu WT ，Yan QY ，Fang Y ，Qiu ZD ，Zhang SM ... -  《Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology-Medical Sciences》

The timing of retroviral silencing correlates with the quality of induced pluripotent stem cell lines.

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be generated from somatic cells by introducing the four transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. Given that iPS cell technology may be useful for medical applications, the quality of iPS cells needs to be maintained during prolonged cultivation. However, it is unclear whether there are any differences in stability among different iPS clones. We infected mouse embryonic and adult fibroblasts with retroviruses encoding Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, c-Myc, and green fluorescent protein (GFP). We obtained embryonic stem (ES) cell-like colonies with silenced retroviral transgenes and divided these colonies into two groups: ES cell-like colonies that underwent retroviral silencing (i) on around day 14 (called early iPS) or (ii) on around day 30 (called late iPS), after infection. We compared morphology, proliferation efficiency, pluripotency marker expression, and karyotype between early iPS and late iPS cells. Early iPS cells were more stable than late iPS cells. At passage 20, most of the early iPS clones maintained ES cell-like morphology, expressed pluripotency markers, and showed proliferation efficiency similar to ES cells. Furthermore, early iPS clones derived from both embryonic and adult fibroblasts gave rise to chimeras and could show germ line competency. In contrast, late iPS clones tended to lose their ES cell-like morphology and normal karyotype in prolonged culture. Our results provide useful information on the efficient derivation of stable iPS cells that may be useful for germline transmission in mouse. This study suggests that early completion of full reprogramming allows for superior iPS cell generation.

Okada M ，Yoneda Y 《-》

Induced pluripotent stem cell lines derived from human gingival fibroblasts and periodontal ligament fibroblasts.

Human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which have similar properties to human embryonic stem (hES) cells, have been generated from neonatal and adult human dermal fibroblasts by reprogramming. iPS cells have high pluripotency and differentiation potential, and may be a potential autologous stem cell source for future regenerative therapy. iPS cell lines from human gingival fibroblasts and, for the first time, from periodontal ligament fibroblasts, were generated by reprogramming using a retroviral transduction cocktail of OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC. iPS induction was investigated through expression of the embryonic stem cell markers SSEA4, OCT4, NANOG, GCTM-2, TG30 and TRA-1-60. Following in vitro differentiation, the expression of genes for differentiation markers for ectoderm (SOX1, PAX6), mesoderm [RUNX1, T(Brachyury)] and endoderm (GATA4, AFP) was assessed by real-time RT-PCR. The ability to form teratomas following implantation into mouse testes was assessed by histology. Human gingival fibroblast- and periodontal ligament fibroblast-derived iPS cells showed similar characteristics to hES cells. Both sets of iPS cells displayed colony morphology comparable to that of hES cells and expressed the hES cell-associated cell-surface antigens, SSEA3, SSEA4, GCTM-2, TG30 (CD9) and Tra-1-60, and the hES cell marker genes, OCT4, NANOG and GDF3. These iPS cells showed differentiation potential to form embryoid bodies in vitro and expressed genes for endoderm, ectoderm and mesoderm. Teratoma formation following implantation into mouse testes was observed. These results demonstrate that iPS cells can be successfully generated from adult human gingival and periodontal ligament fibroblasts.

Wada N ，Wang B ，Lin NH ，Laslett AL ，Gronthos S ，Bartold PM ... -  《-》

Generation of human induced pluripotent stem (Ips) cells in serum- and feeder-free defined culture and TGF-Β1 regulation of pluripotency.

Yamasaki S ，Taguchi Y ，Shimamoto A ，Mukasa H ，Tahara H ，Okamoto T ... -  《PLoS One》