Validation of baboon pluripotent cells as a model for translational stem cell research.

Translation of stem cell therapies to the clinic will be most successful following optimization of efficacy and safety in appropriate preclinical model systems. Among available models, nonhuman primates (NHPs) provide the most accurate recapitulation of human anatomy, physiology, genetics and epigenetics. Here, we show that baboon pluripotent cells (PSCs) recapitulate key molecular features of human PSCs with greater accuracy than that found in PSCs from non-primate species such as mice. Specifically, baboon and human PSCs exhibit greater conservation of gene expression patterns, higher sequence and structural homology among pluripotency factors, more equivalent genome-wide patterns of histone and DNA methylation modifications, and similar maintenance of bivalent programming of developmental genes than that found between human and non-primate PSCs.

Anesthetic challenges in a child with Lowe's and Fanconi syndrome.

Oculocerebrorenal syndrome of Lowe is a rare X-linked metabolic disorder complicated by Fanconi's syndrome. Anaesthetic management of Lowe syndrome with Fanconi's syndrome is challenging to the anaesthesiologists in view of difficult airway due to microcephaly, metabolic abnormalities, and risk of peri-operative seizures. We report a successful anaesthetic management of a case of 2-year-old child scheduled for evaluation under anaesthesia following bilateral lens aspiration surgery.

Optimization of culture conditions for the derivation and propagation of baboon (Papio anubis) induced pluripotent stem cells.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offer the possibility of cell replacement therapies using patient-matched cells to treat otherwise intractable diseases and debilitations. To successfully realize this potential, several factors must be optimized including i) selection of the appropriate cell type and numbers to transplant, ii) determination of the means of transplantation and the location into which the transplanted cells should be delivered, and iii) demonstration of the safety and efficacy of the cell replacement protocol to mitigate each targeted disease state. A majority of diseases or debilitations likely to be targeted by cell-based therapeutic approaches represent complex conditions or physiologies manifest predominantly in primates including humans. Nonhuman primates afford the most clinically relevant model system for biomedical studies and testing of cell-based therapies. Baboons have 92% genomic similarity with humans overall and especially significant similarities in their immunogenetic system, rendering this species a particularly valuable model for testing procedures involving cell transplants into living individuals. To maximize the utility of the baboon model, standardized protocols must be developed for the derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells from living adults and the long-term maintenance of these cells in culture. Here we tested four commercially available culture systems (ReproFF, mTeSR1, E8 and Pluristem) for competence to maintain baboon iPSCs in a pluripotent state over multiple passages, and to support the derivation of new lines of baboon iPSCs. Of these four media only Pluristem was able to maintain baboon pluripotency as assessed by morphological characteristics, immunocytochemistry and RT-qPCR. Pluristem also facilitated the derivation of new lines of iPSCs from adult baboon somatic cells, which had previously not been accomplished. We derived multiple iPS cell lines from adult baboon peripheral blood mononuclear cells cultured in Pluristem. These were validated by expression of the pluripotency markers OCT4, NANOG, SOX2, SSEA4 and TRA181, as well as the ability to differentiate into tissues from all three germ layers when injected into immunocompromised mice. These findings further advance the utility of the baboon as an ideal preclinical model system for optimizing iPS cell-based, patient-specific replacement therapies in humans.

Derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells from the baboon: a nonhuman primate model for preclinical testing of stem cell therapies.

Development of effective pluripotent stem cell-based therapies will require safety and efficacy testing in a clinically relevant preclinical model such as nonhuman primates (NHPs). Baboons and macaques are equally similar to humans genetically and both have been extensively used for biomedical research. Macaques are preferred for human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) research whereas baboons are preferred for transplantation studies because of the greater similarity of their anatomy and immunogenetic system to those of humans. We generated four induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from skin cells of the olive baboon (Papio anubis). Each line shows the distinct morphology of primate pluripotent stem cells, including flat colonies with well-defined borders and a high nuclear/cytoplasm ratio. Each is positive for the pluripotency markers OCT4, SOX2, NANOG, and SSEA4. Pluripotency was confirmed in two lines by teratoma formation with representative tissues from each germ layer, whereas a third produced cells from all three germ layers following embryoid body differentiation. Three lines have a normal male karyotype and the fourth is missing the short arm of one copy of chromosome 18. This may serve as an in vitro model for the human developmental disorder 18p-, which impacts 1 in 50,000 births/year. These iPSC lines represent the first step toward establishing the baboon as a NHP model for developing stem cell-based therapies.