Differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into testosterone-producing Leydig-like cells

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.

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

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Ke Pu ◽  
Xiaojun Liu ◽  
Sarah Da Won Bae ◽  
Romario Nguyen ◽  
...  

Liver diseases are a major health concern globally, and are associated with poor survival and prognosis of patients. This creates the need for patients to accept the main alternative treatment of liver transplantation to prevent progression to end-stage liver disease. Investigation of the molecular mechanisms underpinning complex liver diseases and their pathology is an emerging goal of stem cell scope. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) derived from somatic cells are a promising alternative approach to the treatment of liver disease, and a prospective model for studying complex liver diseases. Here, we review hiPSC technology of cell reprogramming and differentiation, and discuss the potential application of hiPSC-derived liver cells, such as hepatocytes and cholangiocytes, in refractory liver-disease modeling and treatment, and drug screening and toxicity testing. We also consider hiPSC safety in clinical applications, based on genomic and epigenetic alterations, tumorigenicity, and immunogenicity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Ebrahimi ◽  
Mehdi Forouzesh ◽  
Setareh Raoufi ◽  
Mohammad Ramazii ◽  
Farhoodeh Ghaedrahmati ◽  
...  

AbstractDuring the last years, several strategies have been made to obtain mature erythrocytes or red blood cells (RBC) from the bone marrow or umbilical cord blood (UCB). However, UCB-derived hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are a limited source and in vitro large-scale expansion of RBC from HSC remains problematic. One promising alternative can be human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) that provide an unlimited source of cells. Human PSCs, including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), are self-renewing progenitors that can be differentiated to lineages of ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. Several previous studies have revealed that human ESCs can differentiate into functional oxygen-carrying erythrocytes; however, the ex vivo expansion of human ESC-derived RBC is subjected to ethical concerns. Human iPSCs can be a suitable therapeutic choice for the in vitro/ex vivo manufacture of RBCs. Reprogramming of human somatic cells through the ectopic expression of the transcription factors (OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, c-MYC, LIN28, and NANOG) has provided a new avenue for disease modeling and regenerative medicine. Various techniques have been developed to generate enucleated RBCs from human iPSCs. The in vitro production of human iPSC-derived RBCs can be an alternative treatment option for patients with blood disorders. In this review, we focused on the generation of human iPSC-derived erythrocytes to present an overview of the current status and applications of this field.


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.


Author(s):  
John C. Lucchesi

Four core transcription factors known to maintain the pluripotent state in embryonic stem cells (ESCs)—Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc—were used to induce pluripotent stem cells in adult-derived fibroblasts. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), like ESCs, have less condensed and more transcriptionally active chromatin than differentiated cells. The number of genes with bivalent promoter marks increases during reprogramming, reflecting the switch of differentiation-specific active genes to an inactive, but poised, status. The levels of DNA methyl transferases and demethylases are increased, underlying the changes in the pattern of DNA methylation that occur late during reprogramming. The potential therapeutic applications of iPSCs include reprogramming a patient’s own cells to avoid the problem of rejection following injection to restore tissue or organ function. iPSCs derived from individuals at risk of developing late-onset neurological diseases could be differentiated in culture to predict the future occurrence of the disease. Caveats involve the fact that long-term culturing often results in genomic mutations that may, by chance, involve tumor suppressors or oncogenes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Liu ◽  
Dong Li ◽  
Fangxu Sun ◽  
Antonio Rampoldi ◽  
Joshua T. Maxwell ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Treatment-induced cardiotoxicity is a leading noncancer-related cause of acute and late onset morbidity and mortality in cancer patients on antineoplastic drugs such as melphalan—increasing clinical case reports have documented that it could induce cardiotoxicity including severe arrhythmias and heart failure. As the mechanism by which melphalan impairs cardiac cells remains poorly understood, here, we aimed to use cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-CMs) to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of melphalan-induced cardiotoxicity. Methods hiPSC-CMs were generated and treated with clinically relevant doses of melphalan. To characterize melphalan-induced cardiotoxicity, cell viability and apoptosis were quantified at various treatment durations. Ca2+ transient and contractility analyses were used to examine the alterations of hiPSC-CM function. Proteomic analysis, reactive oxygen species detection, and RNA-Sequencing were conducted to investigate underlying mechanisms. Results Melphalan treatment of hiPSC-CMs induced oxidative stress, caused Ca2+ handling defects and dysfunctional contractility, altered global transcriptomic and proteomic profiles, and resulted in apoptosis and cell death. The antioxidant N-acetyl-l-cysteine attenuated these genomic, cellular, and functional alterations. In addition, several other signaling pathways including the p53 and transforming growth factor-β signaling pathways were also implicated in melphalan-induced cardiotoxicity according to the proteomic and transcriptomic analyses. Conclusions Melphalan induces cardiotoxicity through the oxidative stress pathway. This study provides a unique resource of the global transcriptomic and proteomic datasets for melphalan-induced cardiotoxicity and can potentially open up new clinical mechanism-based targets to prevent and treat melphalan-induced cardiotoxicity.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document