ABSTRACT
Cystic fibrosis is one of the most frequent inherited rare diseases, caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene. Apart from symptomatic treatments, therapeutic protocols for curing the disease have not yet been established. The regeneration of genetically corrected, disease-free epithelia in cystic fibrosis patients is envisioned by designing a stem cell/genetic therapy in which patient-derived pluripotent stem cells are genetically corrected, from which target tissues are derived. In this framework, we present an efficient method for seamless correction of pF508del mutation in patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells by gene edited homologous recombination. Gene edition has been performed by transcription activator-like effector nucleases and a homologous recombination donor vector which contains a PiggyBac transposon-based double selectable marker cassette.This new method has been designed to partially avoid xenobiotics from the culture system, improve cell culture efficiency and genome stability by using a robust culture system method, and optimize timings. Overall, once the pluripotent cells have been amplified for the first nucleofection, the procedure can be completed in 69 days, and can be easily adapted to edit and change any gene of interest.
Subject(s)
Cystic Fibrosis/therapy , Deoxyribonucleases/genetics , Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells/physiology , Base Sequence , Coculture Techniques , Comparative Genomic Hybridization , Cystic Fibrosis/genetics , DNA Primers/genetics , DNA Transposable Elements , Feeder Cells , Genetic Engineering , Genetic Therapy , Genetic Vectors , Humans , K562 Cells , Recombinational DNA Repair , Sequence Analysis, DNA , Sequence Deletion , TransfectionABSTRACT
For the past 12 years, the biology and applications of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have received great attention from the scientific community. Derivatives of the first hESC line obtained by J. Thomson's group (Science 282(5391):1145-1147, 1998) have been used in clinical trials in patients with spinal cord injury, and other hESC lines have now been used to generate cells for use in treating blindness (Lancet 379(9817):713-720, 2012). In addition to the classical protocol based on mouse or human feeder layers using open culture methods (In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Animal 46(3-4):386-394, 2010; Stem Cells 23(9):1221-1227, 2005; Nature Biotechnology 24(2):185-187, 2006; Human Reproduction 21(2):503-511, 2006; Human Reproduction 20(8):2201-2206, 2005; Fertility and Sterility 83(5):1517-1529, 2005), novel hESC lines have been derived xeno-free (without using animal derived reagents) (PLoS One 5 (4):1024-1026, 2010), feeder-free (without supporting cell monolayers) (Lancet 365(9471):1601-1603, 2005), in microdrops under oil (In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Animal 46(3-4):236-41, 2010) and in suspension with ROCK inhibitor (Nature Biotechnology 28(4):361-4, 2010). Regardless of the culture system, successful hESC derivation usually requires optimization of embryo culture, the careful and timely isolation of its inner cell mass (ICM), and precise culture conditions up to the establishment of pluripotent cell growth during hESC line derivation. Herein we address the crucial steps of the hESC line derivation protocol, and provide tips to apply quality control to each step of the procedure.
