scholarly journals Epigenetic regulation in pluripotent stem cells: a key to breaking the epigenetic barrier

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1609) ◽  
pp. 20120292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Watanabe ◽  
Yasuhiro Yamada ◽  
Shinya Yamanaka

The differentiation and reprogramming of cells are accompanied by drastic changes in the epigenetic profiles of cells. Waddington's classical model clearly describes how differentiating cells acquire their cell identity as the developmental potential of an individual cell population declines towards the terminally differentiated state. The recent discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells as well as of somatic cell nuclear transfer provided evidence that the process of differentiation can be reversed. The identity of somatic cells is strictly protected by an epigenetic barrier, and these cells acquire pluripotency by breaking the epigenetic barrier by reprogramming factors such as Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4, Myc and LIN28. This review covers the current understanding of the spatio-temporal regulation of epigenetics in pluripotent and differentiated cells, and discusses how cells determine their identity and overcome the epigenetic barrier during the reprogramming process.

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dilip Dey ◽  
Gregory R. D. Evans

During embryonic development pluripotency is progressively lost irreversibly by cell division, differentiation, migration and organ formation. Terminally differentiated cells do not generate other kinds of cells. Pluripotent stem cells are a great source of varying cell types that are used for tissue regeneration or repair of damaged tissue. The pluripotent stem cells can be derived from inner cell mass of blastocyte but its application is limited due to ethical concerns. The recent discovery of iPS with defined reprogramming factors has initiated a flurry of works on stem cell in various laboratories. The pluripotent cells can be derived from various differentiated adult cells as well as from adult stem cells by nuclear reprogramming, somatic cell nuclear transfer etc. In this review article, different aspects of nuclear reprogramming are discussed.


Author(s):  
Kee-Pyo Kim ◽  
Dong Wook Han ◽  
Johnny Kim ◽  
Hans R. Schöler

AbstractEctopic expression of Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc can reprogram somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Attempts to identify genes or chemicals that can functionally replace each of these four reprogramming factors have revealed that exogenous Oct4 is not necessary for reprogramming under certain conditions or in the presence of alternative factors that can regulate endogenous Oct4 expression. For example, polycistronic expression of Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc can elicit reprogramming by activating endogenous Oct4 expression indirectly. Experiments in which the reprogramming competence of all other Oct family members tested and also in different species have led to the decisive conclusion that Oct proteins display different reprogramming competences and species-dependent reprogramming activity despite their profound sequence conservation. We discuss the roles of the structural components of Oct proteins in reprogramming and how donor cell epigenomes endow Oct proteins with different reprogramming competences.


eLife ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Antonio Rosselló ◽  
Chun-Chun Chen ◽  
Rui Dai ◽  
Jason T Howard ◽  
Ute Hochgeschwender ◽  
...  

Cells are fundamental units of life, but little is known about evolution of cell states. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are once differentiated cells that have been re-programmed to an embryonic stem cell-like state, providing a powerful platform for biology and medicine. However, they have been limited to a few mammalian species. Here we found that a set of four mammalian transcription factor genes used to generate iPSCs in mouse and humans can induce a partially reprogrammed pluripotent stem cell (PRPSCs) state in vertebrate and invertebrate model organisms, in mammals, birds, fish, and fly, which span 550 million years from a common ancestor. These findings are one of the first to show cross-lineage stem cell-like induction, and to generate pluripotent-like cells for several of these species with in vivo chimeras. We suggest that the stem-cell state may be highly conserved across a wide phylogenetic range.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prajna Guha ◽  
John W. Morgan ◽  
Gustavo Mostoslavsky ◽  
Neil P. Rodrigues ◽  
Ashleigh S. Boyd

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tackla S. Winston ◽  
Kantaphon Suddhapas ◽  
Chenyan Wang ◽  
Rafael Ramos ◽  
Pranav Soman ◽  
...  

Combination of stem cell technology and 3D biofabrication approaches provides physiological similarity to in vivo tissues and the capability of repairing and regenerating damaged human tissues. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been widely used for regenerative medicine applications because of their immunosuppressive properties and multipotent potentials. To obtain large amount of high-quality MSCs without patient donation and invasive procedures, we differentiated MSCs from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-MSCs) using serum-free E6 media supplemented with only one growth factor (bFGF) and two small molecules (SB431542 and CHIR99021). The differentiated cells showed a high expression of common MSC-specific surface markers (CD90, CD73, CD105, CD106, CD146, and CD166) and a high potency for osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation. With these cells, we have been able to manufacture MSC tissue rings with high consistency and robustness in pluronic-coated reusable PDMS devices. The MSC tissue rings were characterized based on inner diameter and outer ring diameter and observed cell-type-dependent tissue contraction induced by cell-matrix interaction. Our approach of simplified hiPSC-MSC differentiation, modular fabrication procedure, and serum-free culture conditions has a great potential for scalable manufacturing of MSC tissue rings for different regenerative medicine applications.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 230 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Sukparangsi ◽  
R. Bootsri ◽  
W. Sikeao ◽  
S. Karoon ◽  
A. Thongphakdee

Fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) and clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) are wild felids, currently in vulnerable status according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list (2017). Several measures in assisted reproductive technology (e.g. AI, embryo transfer) have been used by the Zoological Park Organization of Thailand (ZPO) to increase their offspring in captivity. Recently, the generation of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cells) becomes popular and provides alternative way to preserve good genetics in the form of cell with diverse capacities. This great potential of iPS cells is unlimited self-renewal and pluripotency, similar to embryonic stem cells (ESC). Under the right cell culture conditions, pluripotent stem cells can differentiate into all cell types of the body. Here, we aimed to find the optimal condition to generate integration-free iPS cells from fishing cat and clouded leopard. At first, to obtain somatic cells for cellular reprogramming, adult dermal fibroblast cell lines from both species were established from belly skin tissues. Subsequently, several nucleofection programs of AmaxaTM 4D-nucleofectorTM (Lonza, Basel, Switzerland) were examined to introduce integration-free DNA vectors carrying reprogramming factors into the felid fibroblasts. The transfected cells were cultured under numerous conditions: (1) matrix/defined surface including irradiated mouse embryonic fibroblast, gelatin, vitronectin, and Geltrex® (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA); (2) ESC/iPS cell medium including Essential 8TM (Thermo Fisher Scientific) DMEM containing KnockOutTM Serum Replacement (KOSR; Thermo Fisher Scientific) and/or fetal bovine serum (FBS); and (3) supplement including basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), l-ascorbic acid, nicotinamide, ALK5 inhibitor (A83-01) and RevitaCellTM (Thermo Fisher Scientific). We found that optimal nucleofection programs for human dermal fibroblast including FF-135 and EN-150 were able to transfer episomal vectors and excisable piggyBAC transposon carrying reprogramming factors into fishing cat and clouded leopard fibroblasts, respectively. The iPS-like colonies appeared around 26 to 30 days post-nucleofection. The culture of transfected cells on either Geltrex® or Vitronectin-coated surface supports the formation of iPS-like colonies with different derivation efficiency (0.01 and 0.005%, respectively). In addition, all colonies were formed under medium containing FBS, together with both bFGF and LIF supplements. Taken together, we have developed a platform to generate iPS cells from tissue collection to the establishment of iPS cell culture. This will further enable us to apply the technique to obtain iPS cells from other endangered and vulnerable felid species.


Endocrinology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takaki Ishida ◽  
Michiyo Koyanagi-Aoi ◽  
Daisuke Yamamiya ◽  
Atsushi Onishi ◽  
Katsuya Sato ◽  
...  

Abstract Late-onset hypogonadism (LOH) syndrome due to a partial lack of testosterone, which is mainly secreted by Leydig cells in the testes, decreases the quality of life of older men. Leydig cell transplantation is expected to be a promising alternative to conventional testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) for LOH syndrome. We herein report a simple and robust protocol for directed differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into Leydig-like cells by doxycycline-inducible overexpression of NR5A1 and treatment with a combination of 8-bromoadenosine-3’,5’-cyclic monophosphate (8-Br-cAMP) and forskolin. The differentiated cells expressed the steroidogenic enzyme genes STAR, CYP11A1, CYP17A1 and HSD3B2 and the specific markers of adult Leydig cells HSD17B3, INSL3 and LHCGR. Furthermore, we confirmed the secretion of functional testosterone from the cells into the culture supernatant by a testosterone-sensitive cell proliferation assay. These findings showed that the hiPSCs were able to be differentiated into Leydig-like cells, supporting the expectation that hiPSC-derived Leydig-like cells can be novel tools for treating LOH syndrome.


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