Project description:Although not an affected cell type, skin fibroblasts from individuals with CC-ALD, an early onset X-linked neurological disorder, show defects in very long chain fatty acid (VLCFA) metabolism that provide the basis for clinical diagnostic tests. Skin fibroblasts from CC-ALD patients can be reprogrammed into iPS cells with all the hallmark properties of pluripotency. The iPS cell phenotypes may reflect the tissue-specificity of the lipid metabolic defects found in CC-ALD patients. We report the gene expression profiles of fibroblasts and fibroblast-reprogrammed iPSCs from childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy patients and healthy controls Dermal fibroblast cultures from 2 CCALD patients and 3 healthy controls were reprogrammed into iPSCs by transfection with retroviruses desinged to express the human OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC cDNA. Fibroblasts and iPSCs were cultured in 1:1 ratio of DMEM/F12 medium supplemented with 20% KSR at 37°C with 5% CO2 until confluence for RNA extraction. The overall goal was to identify genes that are differentially expressed between CCALD patients and healthy controls.
Project description:We generated three kinds of genetically identical mouse reprogrammed cells: induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), nuclear transfer embryonic stem cells (ntESCs) and iPSC-nt-ESCs that are established after successively reprogramming of iPSCs by nuclear transfer (NT). NtESCs show better developmental potential than iPSCs, whereas iPSC-nt-ESCs display worse developmental potential than iPSCs. We used microarrays to distinguish the gene expression differences among three pluriptoent stem cells and identified that imprinted genes had a similar expression pattern in iPSCs and iPSC-nt-ESCs.
Project description:Low Klf4 expression reproducibly gives rise to a homogeneous population of partially reprogrammed iPSCs. Upregulation of Klf4 allows these cells to resume reprogramming, indicating that they are paused iPSCs that remain on the path towards pluripotency. Paused iPSCs with different Klf4 expression levels remain at distinct intermediate stages of reprogramming.
Project description:We generated three kinds of genetically identical mouse reprogrammed cells: induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), nuclear transfer embryonic stem cells (ntESCs) and iPSC-nt-ESCs that are established after successively reprogramming of iPSCs by nuclear transfer (NT). NtESCs show better developmental potential than iPSCs, whereas iPSC-nt-ESCs display worse developmental potential than iPSCs. We used microarrays to distinguish the gene expression differences among three pluriptoent stem cells and identified that imprinted genes had a similar expression pattern in iPSCs and iPSC-nt-ESCs. We sought to obtain genetic identical pluripotent stem cell lines in order to minimize genetic variations among different reprogrammed cells. To that end, we established a genetically homogenous secondary reprogramming system, in which mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) carrying doxycycline (dox)-inducible lentiviruses expressing Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc were isolated and used as donors for different reprogramming experiments. We generated iPSCs after plating MEFs in the presence of dox in ES culture conditions, and then derived ntESCs after transplantation of the nucleus from the same MEFs into enucleated oocyte. Furthermore, we successively reprogrammed iPSCs by means of NT and established a set of nt-iPSC lines. Pluripotent stem cells generated from different reprogramming strategies were for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.
Project description:Although not an affected cell type, skin fibroblasts from individuals with CC-ALD, an early onset X-linked neurological disorder, show defects in very long chain fatty acid (VLCFA) metabolism that provide the basis for clinical diagnostic tests. Skin fibroblasts from CC-ALD patients can be reprogrammed into iPS cells with all the hallmark properties of pluripotency. The iPS cell phenotypes may reflect the tissue-specificity of the lipid metabolic defects found in CC-ALD patients. We report the gene expression profiles of fibroblasts and fibroblast-reprogrammed iPSCs from childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy patients and healthy controls
Project description:During reprogramming of mouse embryonic fibroblast, pluripotent genes are up-regulated. Once iPSCs are successfully reprogrammed, the global gene profiles of iPSCs are comparable to mouse ESC. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression in iPSCs, mESCs, MEFs.
Project description:Purpose: There exists a rich bio-resource of numerous lymphoblastoid cell line (LCL) repositories generated from a wide array of patients, many of them with extensive genotypic and phenotypic data already generated. We have developed a highly efficient LCL to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) reprogramming method and performed whole genome mRNA and miRNA analysis to understand mechanistic changes that take place at the transcriptome and cellular functional level during reprogramming of LCLs into iPSCs and further differentiation. Methods: Applying our optimized protocol which utilizes episomal plasmids encoding pluripotency transcription factors and mouse p53DD - p53 carboxy-terminal dominant-negative fragment and commercially available reprogramming media, we reprogrammed six LCLs into iPSCs and then differentiated them into neural stem cells (NSC). The LCLs, their reprogrammed iPSCs and differentiated NSC (n=18) were sequenced for mRNA and smallRNA on an illumina HiSeq 2500. Differential gene expression analysis was performed between LCL-iPSC and iPSC-NSC pairs in combination with functional annotations and Ingenuity® Pathway Analysis (IPA). Results: Our LCL reprogrammed iPSCs express the majority of genes and miRNAs known to contribute to stemness in human ESCs. The functional enrichment analysis of the up-regulated genes and activation of human pluripotency pathways in the reprogrammed iPSCs showed that the generated iPSCs have a transcriptional and functional profile very similar to that of human ESCs. The reprogrammed iPSCs also showed the potential to differentiate into cells of all three germ layers. Significantly, the transcriptomic effect of EBV encoded oncoproteins which were very pronounced in LCLs, were significantly inhibited in reprogrammed iPSCs. The transcriptomic and functional enrichment analysis of the NSC differentiated from the reprogrammed iPSCs showed that they share a functional profile of self-renewing NSCs. Conclusions: We have been able to develop a MEF feeder free protocol for efficient and reproducible reprogramming of LCLs into iPSC. In addition our comprehensive analysis of genome wide miRNA and mRNA of LCLs, their reprogrammed iPSC and differentiated NSCs provides important documentation of differentially expressed genes and miRNAs and their functional consequences during LCL to iPSC reprogramming and NSC differentiations that were previously unknown.
Project description:Leptin receptors (Lepr) are expressed by various types of stem cells including mesenchymal stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells, embryonic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells. Leptin/lepr signaling is also a central regulator of metabolism. However, the role of Lepr in pluripotency, metabolic disease progression and growth development is still controversial and poorly understood. In the present study, we explored the Lepr function in disease progression, pluripotency and metabolism using day 14.5 mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) and their reprogrammed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as model system. We successfully reprogrammed mouse embryonic fibroblasts into iPSCs from control and db/db (Lepr deficient) mice. Using a global quantitative proteomic approach, we identified key pathways regulating pluripotency, metabolic homeostasis and protein synthesis during fetal growth and development. The Lepr MEFs show abnormal metabolic abnormalities and mitochondrial dysfunction as compared to control MEFs, while Lepr iPSCs show upregulated elongated factor 4 e (eIF4e) protein synthesis pathway and altered Oct4 and Stat3 pathways which are involved in normal fetal growth development. Furthermore, chip analysis revealed that higher Stat3 binding on the promoter of eIF4e in Lepr iPSCs leads to higher protein synthesis in these cell types as compared to control iPSCs. Finally, point mutation corrected Lepr iPSCs using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing method showed recovered pluripotency, metabolic and protein synthesis pathways. In conclusion, we have shown that Lepr signaling is involved in the regulation of the metabolic properties and key developmental pathways in MEFs and stemness of pluripotent stem cells. Disruption of Lepr signaling has been shown to involve in the pathophysiology of various diseases including obesity and diabetes. The generated MEFs and iPSCs in this present study provide valuable tools to explore the role of Lepr in the progression of obesity, diabetes and metabolic abnormalities, and to find the putative targets of Lepr signaling during the development of these diseases.