Project description:Conventional embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from primates resemble mouse epiblast stem cells, raising an intriguing question regarding whether the naïve pluripotent state resembling mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) exists in primates and how to capture it in vitro. Here we identified several specific signaling modulators that are sufficient to generate rhesus monkey fibroblast-derived iPSCs with the features of naïve pluripotency in terms of growth properties, gene expression profiles, self-renewal signaling, X-reactivation and the potential to generate cross-species chimeric embryos. Interestingly, together with recent reports of naïve human pluripotent stem cells, our findings suggest several conserved signaling pathways shared with rodents and specific to primates, providing significant insights for acquiring naïve pluripotency from other mammal species. In addition, the derivation of rhesus monkey naïve iPSCs also provides a valuable cell source for use in preclinical research and disease modeling. mRNA expression analysis of 4 rhesus monkey naive iPSC lines and 2 primed iPSC lines were examed.
Project description:Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be generated from somatic cells by transduction with several transcription factors in both mouse and human. However, direct reprogramming in other species has not been reported. Here, we established an efficient method to generate monkey iPS cells from fibroblasts by retrovirus-mediated introduction of the four monkey transcription factors OCT4 (POU5F1), SOX2, KLF4, and c-MYC. The monkey iPS cells displayed ES-like morphology, expressed ES cell-marker genes, shared similar global gene profiles and methylation status in the OCT4 promoter to those of monkey ES cells, and possessed the ability to differentiate into three germ layers in vitro and in vivo. Our results suggest that the mechanism of direct reprogramming is conserved among species. The efficient generation of monkey iPS cells will allow investigation of the feasibility of therapeutic cloning in primate model with various diseases. Keywords: Induced pluripotent stem, iPS, Rhesus monkey We analysed each sample (Rhesus monkey fibroblast, embryonic stem cell (ES) and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS)) for three replications and sought to see high similarty between iPS and ES.