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AIM: To investigate the potential of human induced pluripotent stem cells(hiPSCs)differentiating into corneal epithelial cells in the simulated limbal stem cells(LSCs)microenvironment.METHODS: The hiPSC cell lines were established in vitro, and hiPSCs were co-cultured with corneal stromal cells in transwell system, which simulated the LSC microenvironment. Bone morphogenetic protein 4(BMP4)and a specific transforming growth factor β inhibitor(SB431542)were added to improve the differentiation efficacy. The expression of corneal epithelial cell-specific markers CK3 and CK12, corneal epithelial cell precursor CK15, and the limbal stem cell markers ABCG5 were determined by immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry.RESULTS: The hiPSCs were actively proliferated in vitro, and immunofluorescence staining showed positive stem cell-specific markers OCT4, SOX2, TRA-1-60 and NANOG. Furthermore, hiPSCs co-cultured with corneal stromal cells exhibited LSCs markers ABCG5 and corneal epithelial cell precursor markers CK15 were positive; however, corneal epithelial cell markers CK3 and CK12 were negative. With the addition of BMP4 and SB431542, hiPSCs showed positive expression of CK3, and the CK3 expression increased over the time.CONCLUSION: With the addition of SB431542 and BMP4, hiPSCs cultured in simulated LSCs microenvironment could differentiate into corneal epithelial cells.
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OBJECTIVE@#To establish an efficient protocol for directed differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into functional midbrain dopaminergic progenitor cells (DAPs) in vitro.@*METHODS@#hiPSCs were induced to differentiate into DAPs in two developmental stages. In the first stage (the first 13 days), hiPSCs were induced into intermediate cells morphologically similar to primitive neuroepithelial cells (NECs) in neural induction medium containing a combination of small molecule compounds. In the second stage, the intermediate cells were further induced in neural differentiation medium until day 28 to obtain DAPs. After CM-DiI staining, the induced DAPs were stereotactically transplanted into the right medial forebrain bundle (MFB) of rat models of Parkinson's disease (PD). Eight weeks after transplantation, the motor behaviors of PD rats was evaluated. Immunofluorescence assay of brain sections of the rats was performed at 2 weeks after transplantation to observe the survival, migration and differentiation of the transplanted cells in the host brain microenvironment.@*RESULTS@#hiPSCs passaged stably on Matrigel showed a normal diploid karyotype, expressed the pluripotency markers OCT4, SOX2, and Nanog, and were positive for alkaline phosphatase. The primitive neuroepithelial cells obtained on day 13 formed dense cell colonies in the form of neural rosettes and expressed the neuroepithelial markers (SOX2, Nestin, and PAX6, 91.3%-92.8%). The DAPs on day 28 highly expressed the specific markers (TH, FOXA2, LMX1A and NURR1, 93.3-96.7%). In rat models of PD, the hiPSCs-DAPs survived and differentiated into TH+, FOXA2+ and Tuj1+ neurons at 2 weeks after transplantation. Eight weeks after transplantation, the motor function of PD rats was significantly improved as shown by water maze test (P < 0.0001) and apomorphine-induced rotation test (P < 0.0001) compared with rats receiving vehicle injection.@*CONCLUSION@#HiPSCs can be effectively induced to differentiate into DAPs capable of differentiating into functional neurons both in vivo and in vitro. In rat models of PD, the transplanted hiPSCs-DAPs can survive for more than 8 weeks in the MFB and differentiate into multiple functional neurocytes to ameliorate neurological deficits of the rats, suggesting the potential value of hiPSCs-DAPs transplantation for treatment of neurological diseases.
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Humans , Rats , Animals , Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells , Cell Differentiation/physiology , Neurons , Parkinson Disease , Mesencephalon , Cells, CulturedABSTRACT
ObjectiveDirected differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells （hiPSCs） into spinal cord γ-aminobutyric acid （GABA）-ergic progenitor cells were implanted into an decellularized optical nerve （DON） bioscaffold to construct a hiPSC-derived inhibitory neural network tissue with synaptic activities. This study aimed to provide a novel stem cell-based tissue engineering product for the study and the repair of central nervous system injury. MethodsThe combination of stepwise directional induction and tissue engineering technology was applied in this study. After hiPSCs were directionally induced into human neural progenitor cells （hNPCs） in vitro， they were seeded into a DON for three-dimensional culture， allowing further differentiation into inhibitory GABAergic neurons under the specific neuronal induction environment. Transmission electron microscopy and whole cell patch clamp technique were used to detect whether the hiPSCs differentiated neurons could form synapse-like structures and whether these neurons had spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents， respectively， in order to validate that the hiPSC-derived neurons would form neural networks with synaptic transmission potentials from a structural and functional perspective. ResultsThe inhibitory neurons of GABAergic phenotype were successfully induced from hiPSCs in vitro， and maintained good viability after 28 days of culture. With the transmission electron microscopy， it was observed that many cell junctions were formed between hiPSC-derived neural cells in the three-dimensional materials， some of which presented a synapse- like structure， manifested as the slight thickness of cell membrane and a small number of vesicles within one side of the cell junctions， the typical structure of a presynatic component， and focal thickness of the membrane of the other side of the cell junctions， a typical structure of a postsynaptic component. According to whole-cell patch-clamp recording， the hiPSC-derived neurons had the capability to generate action potentials and spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents were recorded in this biotissue. ConclusionsThe results of this study indicated that hiPSCs can be induced to differentiate into GABAergic progenitor cells in vitro and can successfully construct iPSC-derived inhibitory neural network tissue with synaptic transmission after implanted into a DON for three-dimensional culture. This study would provide a novel neural network tissue for future research and treatment of central nervous system injury by stem cell tissue engineering technology.
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@#Objective To provide experimental data and theoretical support for further studying the maturity of cardiac patches in other in vitro experiments and the safety in other in vivo animal experiments, through standard chemically defined and small molecule-based induction protocol (CDM3) for promoting the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into myocardium, and preliminarily preparing cardiac patches. Methods After resuscitation, culture and identification of hiPSCs, they were inoculated on the matrigel-coated polycaprolactone (PCL). After 24 hours, the cell growth was observed by DAPI fluorescence under a fluorescence microscope, and the stemness of hiPSCs was identified by OCT4 fluorescence. After fixation, electron microscope scanning was performed to observe the cell morphology on the surface of the patch. On the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th days of culture, the cell viability was determined by CCK-8 method, and the growth curve was drawn to observe the cell growth and proliferation. After co-cultured with matrigel-coated PCL for 24 hours, hiPSCs were divided into a control group and a CDM3 group, and continued to culture for 6 days. On the 8th day, the cell growth was observed by DAPI fluorescence under a fluorescence microscope, and hiPSCs stemness was identified by OCT4 fluorescence, and cTnT and α-actin for cardiomyocyte marker identification. Results Immunofluorescence of hiPSCs co-cultured with matrigel-coated PCL for 24 hours showed that OCT4 emitted green fluorescence, and hiPSCs remained stemness on matrigel-coated PCL scaffolds. DAPI emitted blue fluorescence: cells grew clonally with uniform cell morphology. Scanning electron microscope showed that hiPSCs adhered and grew on matrigel-coated PCL, the cell outline was clearly visible, and the morphology was normal. The cell viability assay by CCK-8 method showed that hiPSCs proliferated and grew on PCL scaffolds coated with matrigel. After 6 days of culture in the control group and the CDM3 group, immunofluorescence showed that the hiPSCs in the control group highly expressed the stem cell stemness marker OCT4, but did not express the cardiac markers cTnT and α-actin. The CDM3 group obviously expressed the cardiac markers cTnT and α-actin, but did not express the stem cell stemness marker OCT4. Conclusion hiPSCs can proliferate and grow on matrigel-coated PCL. Under the influence of CDM3, hiPSCs can be differentiated into cardiomyocyte-like cells, and the preliminary preparation of cardiac patch can provide a better treatment method for further clinical treatment of cardiac infarction.
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Currently, there are insufficient sources of platelets for clinical transfusion, and there are risks of alloimmune reactions and transfusion-transmitted infections (TTI) after transfusion. In recent years, platelets derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have become one of the hottest research topics in the transfusion community, and studies have shown that they have the potential to address the limitations of platelet transfusion and alleviate the conflict between platelet supply and demand in clinical settings. However, the efficiency of hiPSCs in producing functional platelets in vitro is still low, and the yield and quality are still far below clinical transfusion standards. In this review, the basis and applications related to hiPSCs-derived platelets, studies related to human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene-silenced hiPSC-derived platelets, and challenges faced by hiPSCs-derived platelet products were reviewed, providing references for in-depth research and future clinical applications of hiPSCs-derived platelets.
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OBJECTIVE@#To investigate effects of physiological hypoxic conditions on suspension and adherence of embryoid bodies (EBs) during differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and explore the underlying mechanisms.@*METHODS@#EBs in suspension culture were divided into normoxic (21% O2) and hypoxic (5% O2) groups, and those in adherent culture were divided into normoxic, hypoxic and hypoxia + HIF-1α inhibitor (echinomycin) groups. After characterization of the pluripotency with immunofluorescence assay, the hiPSCs were digested and suspended under normoxic and hypoxic conditions for 5 days, and the formation and morphological changes of the EBs were observed microscopically; the expressions of the markers genes of the 3 germ layers in the EBs were detected. The EBs were then inoculated into petri dishes for further culture in normoxic and hypoxic conditions for another 2 days, after which the adhesion and peripheral expansion rate of the adherent EBs were observed; the changes in the expressions of HIF-1α, β-catenin and VEGFA were detected in response to hypoxic culture and echinomycin treatment.@*RESULTS@#The EBs cultured in normoxic and hypoxic conditions were all capable of differentiation into the 3 germ layers. The EBs cultured in hypoxic conditions showed reduced apoptotic debris around them with earlier appearance of cystic EBs and more uniform sizes as compared with those in normoxic culture. Hypoxic culture induced more adherent EBs than normoxic culture (P < 0.05) with also a greater outgrowth rate of the adherent EBs (P < 0.05). The EBs in hypoxic culture showed significantly up-regulated mRNA expressions of β-catenin and VEGFA (P < 0.05) and protein expressions of HIF-1 α, β-catenin and VEGFA (P < 0.05), and their protein expresisons levels were significantly lowered after treatment with echinomycin (P < 0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#Hypoxia can promote the formation and maturation of suspended EBs and enhance their adherence and post-adherent proliferation without affecting their pluripotency for differentiation into all the 3 germ layers. Our results provide preliminary evidence that activation of HIF-1α/β-catenin/VEGFA signaling pathway can enhance the differentiation potential of hiPSCs.
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Humans , Echinomycin/metabolism , Embryoid Bodies/metabolism , Hypoxia/metabolism , Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells/metabolism , beta Catenin/metabolismABSTRACT
【Objective】 To optimize the existing spin-EB method and promote human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) differentiate into megakaryocytes (MKs). 【Methods】 In this study, the initial inoculation amount of hiPSCs was increased from 3 500 cells/well to 8 000 cells/well, and the size of EB was increased. By observing the generation time of EB- hematopoietic cells during differentiation, and detecting the proliferation of CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells and CD41+ MKs in different stages, it was studied whether the optimized scheme could promote the differentiation of hiPSCs into hematopoietic progenitor cells(HPCs) and MKs. 【Results】 By increasing the initial inoculation amount of hiPSCs and the size of EB, the differentiation of hiPSCs into HPCs and MKs and the cell production efficiency can be promoted. 【Conclusion】 Our research describes an optimized and repeatable differentiation method, which can produce hematopoietic progenitor cells and mature MKs from hiPSCs in a relatively short time with higher yield. It is of great clinical significance and broad scientific research prospect to continuously optimize the culture scheme of hiPSCs differentiation to produce MKs and platelets in vitro, and to promote large-scale platelet generation in vitro in transfusion medicine.
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BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that miRNA-148a can promote human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into mature cardiomyocyte-like cells, but the effect of miRNA-148a on the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into cardiomyocyte-like cells has not been reported. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of miRNA-148a on the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into cardiomyocyte-like cells. METHODS: Human induced pluripotent stem cells differentiating into cardiomyocyte-like cells were divided into three groups. Cells in the control group were not treated. Cells in the low expression group were treated with miRNA-148a for 28 days, and those in the high expression group were treated with mimics of miRNA-148a for 28 days. In addition, human induced pluripotent stem cells cultured for 28 days were taken as the blank control group. CCK-8 was used to detect cell proliferation activity. qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of miRNA-148a. Immunofluorescence staining and western blot analysis were performed to detect the expression of MHC and cTnT protein. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The expression of intracellular miR-148a mRNA and cell proliferation activity in the low expression group were lower than those in the blank control and control groups, while those in the high expression group were significantly higher than those in the other three groups (P < 0.01). There were no positive expression of MHC and cTnT in the blank control group. There were positive expressions of MHC and cTnT in the control, low expression and high expression groups. The expression of MHC and cTnT protein in the low expression group was significantly lower than that in the control group, and that in the high expression group was significantly higher than that in the other three groups (P < 0.01). These results suggest that miRNA-148a can promote the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into cardiomyocyte-like cells.
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BACKGROUND: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a devastating genetic muscular disorder with no effective treatment that is caused by the loss of dystrophin. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) offer a promising unlimited resource for cell-based therapies of muscular dystrophy. However, their clinical applications are hindered by inefficient myogenic differentiation, and moreover, the engraftment of non-transgene hiPSC-derived myogenic progenitors has not been examined in the mdx mouse model of DMD. METHODS: We investigated the muscle regenerative potential of myogenic progenitors derived from hiPSCs in mdx mice. The hiPSCs were transfected with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) vector and defined as EGFP hiPSCs. Myogenic differentiation was performed on EGFP hiPSCs with supplementary of basic fibroblast growth factor, forskolin, 6-bromoindirubin-3'-oxime as well as horse serum. EGFP hiPSCs-derived myogenic progenitors were engrafted into mdx mice via both intramuscular and intravenous injection. The restoration of dystrophin expression, the ratio of central nuclear myofibers, and the transplanted cells-derived satellite cells were accessed after intramuscular and systemic transplantation. RESULTS: We report that abundant myogenic progenitors can be generated from hiPSCs after treatment with these three small molecules, with consequent terminal differentiation giving rise to mature myotubes in vitro. Upon intramuscular or systemic transplantation into mdx mice, these myogenic progenitors engrafted and contributed to human-derived myofiber regeneration in host muscles, restored dystrophin expression, ameliorated pathological lesions, and seeded the satellite cell compartment in dystrophic muscles. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the muscle regeneration potential of myogenic progenitors derived from hiPSCs using non-transgenic induction methods. Engraftment of hiPSC-derived myogenic progenitors could be a potential future therapeutic strategy to treat DMD in a clinical setting.
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Humans , Animals , Male , Mice , Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne/therapy , Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells/transplantation , Cell Differentiation , Cells, Cultured , Green Fluorescent Proteins , Disease Models, Animal , Mice, Inbred C57BLABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Proficient differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into specific lineages is required for applications in regenerative medicine. A growing amount of evidences had implicated hormones and hormone-like molecules as critical regulators of proliferation and lineage specification during in vivo development. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the hormones and hormone-like molecules involved in cell fate decisions is critical for efficient and controlled differentiation of hPSCs into specific lineages. Thus, we functionally and quantitatively compared the effects of diverse hormones (estradiol 17-β (E2), progesterone (P4), and dexamethasone (DM)) and a hormone-like molecule (retinoic acid (RA)) on the regulation of hematopoietic and neural lineage specification. METHODS AND RESULTS: We used 10 nM E2, 3 μM P4, 10 nM DM, and 10 nM RA based on their functional in vivo developmental potential. The sex hormone E2 enhanced functional activity of hematopoietic progenitors compared to P4 and DM, whereas RA impaired hematopoietic differentiation. In addition, E2 increased CD34⁺CD45⁺ cells with progenitor functions, even in the CD43⁻ population, a well-known hemogenic marker. RA exhibited lineage-biased potential, preferentially committing hPSCs toward the neural lineage while restricting the hematopoietic fate decision. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings reveal unique cell fate potentials of E2 and RA treatment and provide valuable differentiation information that is essential for hPSC applications.
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Humans , Dexamethasone , Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells , Pluripotent Stem Cells , Progesterone , Regenerative Medicine , TretinoinABSTRACT
Objective To induce human-induced pluripotent stem cells(iPSCs)to differentiate into spinal motor neuron precursor (MNP)and compare the induction efficiency in systems of feeder and feeder-free. Methods iPSCs cultured on mouse feeder cells or in feeder-free condition were induced into neuroepithelial progenitors (NEP) on the sixth day and MNP on the twelveth day.Their morphology was observed under inverted micro-scope,and the markers of iPSCs,NEP,MNP were detected with immunofluorescence.NEP-related genes SOX1 and HOXA3,MNP-related genes OLIG2 and PAX6,and pluripotency genes SOX2 and OCT4 were detected with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results iPSCs expressed pluripotency markers,while NEP and MNP expressed high levels of neural related markers and low levels of pluripotency markers in two systems. The expression of the genes SOX1, HOXA3, OLIG2 and OCT4 was higher in the feeder system,and there was no significant difference in the expression of genes SOX2 and PA X 6. Conclusion iPSCs can differentiate into MNP in culture systems of feeder and feeder-free,and the induction efficiency is higher in the feeder system.
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Objective To comparatively study the features of two reprogramming systems of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)from human dental origin.Methods Two kinds of reprogramming system,i.e.STEMCCA lentivirus /feed layer and Sen-dai virus /matrigel were used to induce human stem cells from apical papilla(SCAP)into iPSCs,respectively.The induction efficien-cies,workload of generating iPSCs,aneuploidy karyotype ratio,complexities of eliminating exogenous transcription factors and spe-cific markers expression were compared between these two systems.Results The STEMCCA reprogramming system required to prepare the feeder cell MEF.The reprogramming efficiency was 0.1%.Transcription gene-free iPSCs cells were obtained by the Cre-loxp enzyme digestion technique at the later stage.Sendai virus reprogramming system was feeder-free and the preparation of matrigel was quite simple with unified standard.The reprogramming efficiency was 0.7%,which was much higher than that of STEMCCA system(P <0.05).The exogenous virus and transgenes could be gradually eliminated after several passages of natural subclone.Conclusion The Sendai virus/matrigle reprogramming system is much more applicable for the induction of iPSCs from dental origin than the STEMCCA system.
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Objective To generate hemogenic endothelial cells(HECs)from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs)in vitro in order to learn more about the mechanism by which the vascular niche affects HECs production and self -renewal.Methods hiPSCs with reporter gene runx1c were differentiated to hematopoietic cells by spinEB method.The CD34 positive cells were sorted by magnetic-activated cell sorting(MACS)at day 10 after hematopoietic differentiation. Afterwards,these CD34 positive cells were co-cultured with DLL4 overexpressed vascular niche cells VeraVec to further differentiate to HECs.The HECs derived from the hiPSCs were characterized by FACS.Results We first established an hiPSCs single cell culture method for spinEB differentiation.Single cell cultured hiPSCs with reporter gene runx 1c were differentiated to form embryonic bodies(EBs)by spinEB method.The HECs were enriched from the day 10.Meanwhile, we cultured the E4ORF1 transfected human umbilical vein endothelial cell(HUVEC)line(VeraVec)and examined the expression of NOTCH signaling pathway related genes.According to the results, VeraVec had a high expression level of NOTCH ligand DLL4 at both mRNA and protein levels.And the CD34 positive HECs were co-cultured with DLL4 overexpressed VeraVec cells,which promoted the expression of tdTomato during hematopoitic differentiation and increased HSCs production.Conclusion A method of inducing hiPSCs differentiation by spinEB has been established, which can enrich HECs.This model can be applied to study the mechanism by which the vascular niche promotes hematopoietic differentiation from hPSCs.The generated functional HSCs are of great social and military values for HSCs transplantation and battlefield radiation injury treatment.
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Spherical neural mass (SNM) is a mass of neural precursors that have been used to generate neuronal cells with advantages of long-term passaging capability with high yield, easy storage, and thawing. In this study, we differentiated neural retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC)-derived SNMs. RPCs were differentiated from SNMs with a noggin/fibroblast growth factor-basic/Dickkopf-1/Insulin-like growth factor-1/fibroblast growth factor-9 protocol for three weeks. Human RPCs expressed eye field markers (Paired box 6) and early neural retinal markers (Ceh-10 homeodomain containing homolog), but did not photoreceptor marker (Opsin 1 short-wave-sensitive). Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction revealed that early neural retinal markers (Mammalian achaete-scute complex homolog 1, mouse atonal homolog 5, neurogenic differentiation 1) and retinal fate markers (brain-specific homeobox/POU domain transcription factor 3B and recoverin) were upregulated, while the marker of retinal pigment epithelium (microphthalmia-associated transcription factor) only showed slight upregulation. Human RPCs were transplanted into mouse (adult 8 weeks old C57BL/6) retina. Cells transplanted into the mouse retina matured and expressed markers of mature retinal cells (Opsin 1 short-wave-sensitive) and human nuclei on immunohistochemistry three months after transplantation. Development of RPCs using SNMs may offer a fast and useful method for neural retinal cell differentiation.
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Animals , Humans , Mice , Cell Differentiation , Immunohistochemistry , Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells , Methods , Neurons , Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate , Polymerase Chain Reaction , Retina , Retinal Pigment Epithelium , Retinaldehyde , Reverse Transcription , Stem Cells , Transcription Factors , Up-RegulationABSTRACT
Pluripotent stem cells can differentiate into many cell types including mature hepatocytes, and can be used in the development of new drugs, treatment of diseases, and in basic research. In this study, we established a protocol leading to efficient hepatic differentiation, and compared the capacity to differentiate into the hepatocyte lineage of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Optimal combinations of cytokines and growth factors were added to embryoid bodies produced by both types of cell. Differentiation of the cells was assessed with optical and electron microscopes, and hepatic-specific transcripts and proteins were detected by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and immunocytochemistry, respectively. Both types of embryoid body produced polygonal hepatocyte-like cells accompanied by time-dependent up regulation of genes for α-fetoprotein, albumin (ALB), asialoglycoprotein1, CK8, CK18, CK19, CYP1A2, and CYP3A4, which are expressed in fetal and adult hepatocytes. Both types of cell displayed functions characteristic of mature hepatocytes such as accumulation of glycogen, secretion of ALB, and uptake of indocyanine green. And these cells are transplanted into mouse model. Our findings indicate that hESCs and hiPSCs have similar abilities to differentiate into hepatocyte in vitro using the protocol developed here, and these cells are transplantable into damaged liver.