scholarly journals Three-dimensional model of glioblastoma by co-culturing tumor stem cells with human brain organoids

Biology Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Azzarelli ◽  
Michela Ori ◽  
Anna Philpott ◽  
Benjamin D. Simons
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
3D Culture ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Culture Conditions ◽  
Three Dimensional Model ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT Emerging three-dimensional (3D) cultures of glioblastoma are becoming powerful models to study glioblastoma stem cell behavior and the impact of cell–cell and cell–microenvironment interactions on tumor growth and invasion. Here we describe a method for culturing human glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) in 3D by co-culturing them with pluripotent stem cell-derived brain organoids. This requires multiple coordinated steps, including the generation of cerebral organoids, and the growth and fluorescence tagging of GSCs. We highlight how to recognize optimal organoid generation and how to efficiently mark GSCs, before describing optimized co-culture conditions. We show that GSCs can efficiently integrate into brain organoids and maintain a significant degree of cell fate heterogeneity, paving the way for the analysis of GSC fate behavior and lineage progression. These results establish the 3D culture system as a viable and versatile GBM model for investigating tumor cell biology and GSC heterogeneity. This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.

scholarly journals The Winding Road of Cardiac Regeneration—Stem Cell Omics in the Spotlight

Cells ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miruna Mihaela Micheu ◽  
Alina Ioana Scarlatescu ◽  
Alexandru Scafa-Udriste ◽  
Maria Dorobantu
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Cardiac Regeneration ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Omics Data

Despite significant progress in treating ischemic cardiac disease and succeeding heart failure, there is still an unmet need to develop effective therapeutic strategies given the persistent high-mortality rate. Advances in stem cell biology hold great promise for regenerative medicine, particularly for cardiac regeneration. Various cell types have been used both in preclinical and clinical studies to repair the injured heart, either directly or indirectly. Transplanted cells may act in an autocrine and/or paracrine manner to improve the myocyte survival and migration of remote and/or resident stem cells to the site of injury. Still, the molecular mechanisms regulating cardiac protection and repair are poorly understood. Stem cell fate is directed by multifaceted interactions between genetic, epigenetic, transcriptional, and post-transcriptional mechanisms. Decoding stem cells’ “panomic” data would provide a comprehensive picture of the underlying mechanisms, resulting in patient-tailored therapy. This review offers a critical analysis of omics data in relation to stem cell survival and differentiation. Additionally, the emerging role of stem cell-derived exosomes as “cell-free” therapy is debated. Last but not least, we discuss the challenges to retrieve and analyze the huge amount of publicly available omics data.

scholarly journals Advances in Pluripotent Stem Cells: History, Mechanisms, Technologies, and Applications

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gele Liu ◽  
Brian T. David ◽  
Matthew Trawczynski ◽  
Richard G. Fessler
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Regenerative Medicine ◽  
Pluripotent Stem Cells ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cell Technology

AbstractOver the past 20 years, and particularly in the last decade, significant developmental milestones have driven basic, translational, and clinical advances in the field of stem cell and regenerative medicine. In this article, we provide a systemic overview of the major recent discoveries in this exciting and rapidly developing field. We begin by discussing experimental advances in the generation and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), next moving to the maintenance of stem cells in different culture types, and finishing with a discussion of three-dimensional (3D) cell technology and future stem cell applications. Specifically, we highlight the following crucial domains: 1) sources of pluripotent cells; 2) next-generation in vivo direct reprogramming technology; 3) cell types derived from PSCs and the influence of genetic memory; 4) induction of pluripotency with genomic modifications; 5) construction of vectors with reprogramming factor combinations; 6) enhancing pluripotency with small molecules and genetic signaling pathways; 7) induction of cell reprogramming by RNA signaling; 8) induction and enhancement of pluripotency with chemicals; 9) maintenance of pluripotency and genomic stability in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs); 10) feeder-free and xenon-free culture environments; 11) biomaterial applications in stem cell biology; 12) three-dimensional (3D) cell technology; 13) 3D bioprinting; 14) downstream stem cell applications; and 15) current ethical issues in stem cell and regenerative medicine. This review, encompassing the fundamental concepts of regenerative medicine, is intended to provide a comprehensive portrait of important progress in stem cell research and development. Innovative technologies and real-world applications are emphasized for readers interested in the exciting, promising, and challenging field of stem cells and those seeking guidance in planning future research direction.

scholarly journals Hypoxic Culture Conditions as a Solution for Mesenchymal Stem Cell Based Regenerative Therapy

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazmul Haque ◽  
Mohammad Tariqur Rahman ◽  
Noor Hayaty Abu Kasim ◽  
Aied Mohammed Alabsi
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Growth Kinetics ◽  
Chemokine Receptors ◽  
Hypoxia Inducible Factor ◽  
Culture Conditions ◽  
Poor Growth ◽  
Regenerative Therapies

Cell-based regenerative therapies, based onin vitropropagation of stem cells, offer tremendous hope to many individuals suffering from degenerative diseases that were previously deemed untreatable. Due to the self-renewal capacity, multilineage potential, and immunosuppressive property, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered as an attractive source of stem cells for regenerative therapies. However, poor growth kinetics, early senescence, and genetic instability duringin vitroexpansion and poor engraftment after transplantation are considered to be among the major disadvantages of MSC-based regenerative therapies. A number of complex inter- and intracellular interactive signaling systems control growth, multiplication, and differentiation of MSCs in their niche. Common laboratory conditions for stem cell culture involve ambient O2concentration (20%) in contrast to their niche where they usually reside in 2–9% O2. Notably, O2plays an important role in maintaining stem cell fate in terms of proliferation and differentiation, by regulating hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) mediated expression of different genes. This paper aims to describe and compare the role of normoxia (20% O2) and hypoxia (2–9% O2) on the biology of MSCs. Finally it is concluded that a hypoxic environment can greatly improve growth kinetics, genetic stability, and expression of chemokine receptors duringin vitroexpansion and eventually can increase efficiency of MSC-based regenerative therapies.

scholarly journals The evolving biology of small molecules: controlling cell fate and identity

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1575) ◽  
pp. 2208-2221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jem A. Efe ◽  
Sheng Ding
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Small Molecules ◽  
Somatic Cell ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Adult Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell Biology ◽  
Vast Number ◽  
Short Period

Small molecules have been playing important roles in elucidating basic biology and treatment of a vast number of diseases for nearly a century, making their use in the field of stem cell biology a comparatively recent phenomenon. Nonetheless, the power of biology-oriented chemical design and synthesis, coupled with significant advances in screening technology, has enabled the discovery of a growing number of small molecules that have improved our understanding of stem cell biology and allowed us to manipulate stem cells in unprecedented ways. This review focuses on recent small molecule studies of (i) the key pathways governing stem cell homeostasis, (ii) the pluripotent stem cell niche, (iii) the directed differentiation of stem cells, (iv) the biology of adult stem cells, and (v) somatic cell reprogramming. In a very short period of time, small molecules have defined a perhaps universally attainable naive ground state of pluripotency, and are facilitating the precise, rapid and efficient differentiation of stem cells into somatic cell populations relevant to the clinic. Finally, following the publication of numerous groundbreaking studies at a pace and consistency unusual for a young field, we are closer than ever to completely eliminating the need for genetic modification in reprogramming.

scholarly journals Encapsulation and recovery of murine hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in a thiol-crosslinked maleimide-functionalized gelatin hydrogel

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan E Gilchrist ◽  
Julio F. Serrano ◽  
Mai T. Ngo ◽  
Zona Hrnjak ◽  
Sanha Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Click Reaction ◽  
Uv Light ◽  
3D Culture ◽  
Bone Marrow Niche ◽  
Hematopoietic Stem ◽  
Cell Fate Decisions

Biomaterial platforms are an integral part of stem cell biomanufacturing protocols. The collective biophysical, biochemical, and cellular cues of the stem cell niche microenvironment play an important role in regulating stem cell fate decisions. Three-dimensional (3D) culture of stem cells within biomaterials provides a route to present biophysical and biochemical stimuli such as cell-matrix interactions and cell-cell interactions via secreted biomolecules. Herein, we describe a maleimide-functionalized gelatin (GelMAL) hydrogel that can be crosslinked via thiol-Michael addition click reaction for the encapsulation of sensitive stem cell populations. The maleimide functional units along the gelatin backbone enables gelation via the addition of a dithiol crosslinker without requiring external stimuli (e.g., UV light, photoinitiator), reducing reactive oxide species generation. Additionally, the versatility of crosslinker selection enables easy insertion of thiol-containing bioactive or bioinert motifs. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were encapsulated in GelMAL, with mechanical properties tuned to mimic the in vivo bone marrow niche. We report insertion of a cleavable peptide crosslinker that can be degraded by the proteolytic action of SortaseA, a mammalian-inert enzyme. Notably, SortaseA exposure preserves stem cell surface markers, an essential metric of hematopoietic activity used in immunophenotyping. This novel GelMAL system enables a route to producing artificial stem cell niches with tunable biophysical properties with intrinsic cell-interaction motifs and orthogonal addition of bioactive crosslinks.

scholarly journals Time-resolved transcriptomics in neural stem cells identifies a v-ATPase/Notch regulatory loop

2018 ◽  
Vol 217 (9) ◽  
pp. 3285-3300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Wissel ◽  
Heike Harzer ◽  
François Bonnay ◽  
Thomas R. Burkard ◽  
Ralph A. Neumüller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Neural Stem Cells ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Transcriptional Profiling ◽  
Nervous System Development ◽  
Time Resolved ◽  
Daughter Cells ◽  
Regulatory Loop

Drosophila melanogaster neural stem cells (neuroblasts [NBs]) divide asymmetrically by differentially segregating protein determinants into their daughter cells. Although the machinery for asymmetric protein segregation is well understood, the events that reprogram one of the two daughter cells toward terminal differentiation are less clear. In this study, we use time-resolved transcriptional profiling to identify the earliest transcriptional differences between the daughter cells on their way toward distinct fates. By screening for coregulated protein complexes, we identify vacuolar-type H+–ATPase (v-ATPase) among the first and most significantly down-regulated complexes in differentiating daughter cells. We show that v-ATPase is essential for NB growth and persistent activity of the Notch signaling pathway. Our data suggest that v-ATPase and Notch form a regulatory loop that acts in multiple stem cell lineages both during nervous system development and in the adult gut. We provide a unique resource for investigating neural stem cell biology and demonstrate that cell fate changes can be induced by transcriptional regulation of basic, cell-essential pathways.

scholarly journals Defining the transcriptional signature of esophageal-to-skin lineage conversion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria T. Bejar ◽  
Paula Jimenez-Gomez ◽  
Ilias Moutsopoulos ◽  
Bartomeu Colom ◽  
Seungmin Han ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cell ◽  
Epithelial Cells ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
3D Culture ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Transcriptional Signature ◽  
3D Culture System ◽  
Cell Fate Conversion

AbstractThe ability of epithelial cells to rewire their cell fate program beyond their physiological repertoire has become a new paradigm in stem cell biology. This plasticity leaves behind the concept of strict stem cell hierarchies, opening up new exciting questions about its limits and underlying regulation. Here we developed a heterotypic 3D culture system to study the mechanisms modulating changes in the identity of adult esophageal epithelial cells. We demonstrate that, when exposed to the foreign stroma of adult skin, esophageal cells transition towards hair follicle identity and architecture. Heterotypic transplantation experiments recapitulated this cell fate conversion processin vivo. Single-cell RNA sequencing and histological analysis, capturing the temporality of this process, reveal that most esophageal cells switching towards skin identity remain in an intermediate state marked by a transient regenerative profile and a particularly strong hypoxic signature. Inhibition of HIF1a establishes the central role of this pathway in regulating epithelial cell plasticity, driving cells away from their transition state in favor of cell fate conversion.

Abstract 213: Evolving Challenges in Promoting Stem Cell Based Cardiovascular Repair and Regeneration

2016 ◽  
Vol 119 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mani T Valarmathi ◽  
Jiang Li
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Cardiac Muscle ◽  
Adult Stem Cells ◽  
Cardiac Tissue ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell ◽  
Myocardial Damage ◽  
Culture Conditions

Introduction: Use of adult stem cells in the stimulation of mammalian cardiac muscle regeneration is in its infancy, and to date, it has been difficult to determine the efficacy of the procedures that have been employed. The outstanding question remains whether stem cells derived from the bone-marrow or some other location within or outside of the heart can populate a region of myocardial damage and transform into tissue-specific cells, and also exhibit functional synchronization. As a result, this necessitates the development of an appropriate in vitro three-dimensional (3-D) model of cardiomyogenesis and prompts the development of a 3-D cardiac muscle construct for tissue engineering purposes, especially using the adult stem cells. Hypothesis: Functioning vascularized cardiac tissue can be generated by the interaction of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived embryonic cardiac myocytes (hiPSC-ECMs) and human multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) on a 3-D prevascularized collagen cell carrier (CCC) scaffold. Methods and Results: In order to achieve the above aim, we have developed an in vitro 3-D functioning vascularized cardiac muscle construct using hiPSC-ECMs and hMSCs. First, to generate the prevascularized scaffold, human cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (hCMVECs) and hMSCs were co-cultured on 3-D CCCs for 7 days under vasculogenic culture conditions, hCMVECs/hMSCs underwent maturation, differentiation, and morphogenesis characteristic of micro vessels, and formed extensive plexuses of vascular networks. Next, the hiPSC-ECMs and hMSCs were co-cultured onto this generated prevascularized CCCs for further 7 or 14 days in myogenic culture conditions. Finally, the vascular and cardiac phenotypic inductions were analyzed at the morphological, immunological, biochemical, molecular, and functional levels. Expression and functional analyses of the differentiated cells revealed dramatic neo-angiogenesis and neo-cardiomyogenesis. Conclusions: Thus, our unique 3-D co-culture system provided us the apt in vitro functioning prevascularized 3-D cardiac patch that can be utilized for cellular cardiomyoplasty.

A unique three-dimensional model for evaluating the impact of therapy on multiple myeloma

Blood ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 112 (7) ◽  
pp. 2935-2945 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Kirshner ◽  
Kyle J. Thulien ◽  
Lorri D. Martin ◽  
Carina Debes Marun ◽  
Tony Reiman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Multiple Myeloma ◽  
Plasma Cells ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Preclinical Model ◽  
Drug Resistant ◽  
Three Dimensional Model ◽  
The Impact

AbstractAlthough the in vitro expansion of the multiple myeloma (MM) clone has been unsuccessful, in a novel three-dimensional (3-D) culture model of reconstructed bone marrow (BM, n = 48) and mobilized blood autografts (n = 14) presented here, the entire MM clone proliferates and undergoes up to 17-fold expansion of malignant cells harboring the clonotypic IgH VDJ and characteristic chromosomal rearrangements. In this system, MM clone expands in a reconstructed microenvironment that is ideally suited for testing specificity of anti-MM therapeutics. In the 3-D model, melphalan and bortezomib had distinct targets, with melphalan targeting the hematopoietic, but not stromal com-partment. Bortezomib targeted only CD138+CD56+ MM plasma cells. The localization of nonproliferating cells to the reconstructed endosteum, in contact with N-cadherin–positive stroma, suggested the presence of MM-cancer stem cells. These drug-resistant CD20+ cells were enriched more than 10-fold by melphalan treatment, exhibited self-renewal, and generated clonotypic B and plasma cell progeny in colony forming unit assays. This is the first molecularly verified demonstration of proliferation in vitro by ex vivo MM cells. The 3-D culture provides a novel biologically relevant preclinical model for evaluating therapeutic vulnerabilities of all compartments of the MM clone, including presumptive drug-resistant MM stem cells.

scholarly journals Controlling Redox Status for Stem Cell Survival, Expansion, and Differentiation

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Sart ◽  
Liqing Song ◽  
Yan Li
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Stem Cell ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Disease Modeling ◽  
Redox Status ◽  
Culture Conditions ◽  
Ros Generation ◽  
Cellular Functions ◽  
Proliferation And Differentiation ◽  
Cell Organization

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have long been considered as pathological agents inducing apoptosis under adverse culture conditions. However, recent findings have challenged this dogma and physiological levels of ROS are now considered as secondary messengers, mediating numerous cellular functions in stem cells. Stem cells represent important tools for tissue engineering, drug screening, and disease modeling. However, the safe use of stem cells for clinical applications still requires culture improvements to obtain functional cells. With the examples of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), this review investigates the roles of ROS in the maintenance of self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation of stem cells. In addition, this work highlights that the tight control of stem cell microenvironment, including cell organization, and metabolic and mechanical environments, may be an effective approach to regulate endogenous ROS generation. Taken together, this paper indicates the need for better quantification of ROS towards the accurate control of stem cell fate.

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