ABSTRACT
This study was to establish the episomal vector reprogramming method to reprogram iPSC from human cord blood (CB) CD34(+) cells. The non-integrating plasmids of pEB-C5 and pEB-Tg were transfected into short-term cultured CB CD34(+) cells by using the nucleofector, so as to demonstrate efficient reprogramming of CB CD34(+) cells. Within 14 days of one-time transfection by two plasmids together, up to 200 iPSC-like colonies per 2 million transfected CB CD34(+) cells were generated. The results showed that the pluripotency of iPSC-derived CB CD34(+) cells was similar to that of hESC and the karyotypes of iPSC were normal. In addition, no vector integration was found in iPSC of 9th and 10th passages. Furthermore, hiPSC formed teratoma with three embryonic germ layers. It is concluded that the integration-free method to generate human iPSC from CB CD34(+) cells is reliable and can provide new ways for both research and future clinical applications.