LYL1, Class II Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factor, Induces the Differentiation of Common Marmoset Embryonic Stem Cells to Hematopoietic Stem Cells

Blood ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 118 (21) ◽  
pp. 2348-2348
Author(s):  
Hirotaka Kawano ◽  
Tomotoshi Marumoto ◽  
Michiyo Okada ◽  
Tomoko Inoue ◽  
Takenobu Nii ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 2348 Since the successful establishment of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in 1998, transplantation of functional cells differentiated from ESCs to the specific impaired organ has been expected to cure its defective function [Thomson JA et al., Science 282:1145–47, 1998]. For the establishment of the regenerative medicine using ESCs, the preclinical studies utilizing animal model systems including non-human primates are essential. We have demonstrated that non-human primate of common marmoset (CM) is a suitable experimental animal for the preclinical studies of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) therapy [Hibino H et al., Blood 93:2839–48, 1999]. Since then we have continuously investigated the in vitro and in vivo differentiation of CM ESCs to hematopoietic cells by the exogenous hematopoietic gene transfer. In earlier study, we showed that the induction of CD34+ cells having a blood colony forming capacity from CM ESCs is promoted by lentiviral transduction of TAL1 cDNA [Kurita R et al., Stem Cells 24:2014-22,2006]. However those CD34+ cells did not have a bone marrow reconstituting ability in irradiated NOG (NOD/Shi-scid/IL-2Rγnull) mice, suggesting that transduction of TAL1 gene is not enough to induce functional HSCs which have self-renewal capability and multipotency. Thus we tried to find other hematopoietic genes being able to promote hematopoietic differetiation more efficiently than TAL1. We selected 6 genes (LYL1, HOXB4, BMI1, GATA2, c-MYB and LMO2) as candidates for factors that induce the differentiation from ESCs to HSCs, based on the comparison of gene expression level between human ESCs and HSCs by Digital Differential Display from the Uni-Gene database at the NCBI web site (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/UniGene/). Then, we transduced the respective candidate gene in CM ESCs (Cj11), and performed embryoid body (EB) formation assay to induce their differentiation to HSCs for 9 days. We found that lentiviral transduction of LYL1, a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, in EBs derived from Cj11, one of CM ESC lines, markedly increased the number of cells positive for CD34, a marker for hematopoietic stem/progenitors. The lymphoblastic leukemia 1 (LYL1) was originally identified as the factor of a chromosomal translocation, resulting in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia [Mellentin JD et al., Cell 58:77-83.1989]. These class II bHLH transcription factors regulate gene expression by binding to target gene sequences as heterodimers with E-proteins, in association with Gata1 and Gata2 [Goldfarb AN et al., Blood 85:465-71.1995][Hofmann T et al., Oncogene 13:617-24.1996][Hsu HL et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91:5947-51.1994]. The Lyl1-deficient mice display the reduction of B cells and impaired long-term hematopoietic reconstitution capacity [Capron C et al., Blood 107:4678-4686. 2006]. And, overexpression of Lyl1 in mouse bone marrow cells induced the increase of HSCs, HPCs and lymphocytes in vitro and in vivo [Lukov GL et al., Leuk Res 35:405-12. 2011]. These information indicate that LYL1 plays important roles in hematopoietic differentiation in primate animals including human and common marmoset. To examine whether overexpression of LYL1 in EBs can promote hematopoietic differentiation in vitro we performed colony-forming unit (CFU) assay, and found that LYL1-overexpressing EBs showed the formation of multi-lineage blood cells consisting of erythroid cells, granulocytes and macrophages. Next, we analyzed gene expression level by RT-PCR, and found that the transduction of LYL1 induced the expression of various hematopoietic genes. These results suggested that the overexpression of LYL1 can promote the differentiation of CM ESCs to HSCs in vitro. Furthermore we found that the combined overexpression of TAL1 and LYL1 could enhance the differentiation of CD34+ cells from CM ESCs than the respective overexrpession of TAL1 or LYL1. Collectively, our novel technology to differentiate hematopoietic cells from ESCs by the transduction of specific transcription factors is novel, and might be applicable to expand human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells in vitro for future regenerative medicine to cure human hematopoietic cell dyscrasias. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 1192-1192
Author(s):  
Hirotaka Kawano ◽  
Tomotoshi Marumoto ◽  
Takafumi Hiramoto ◽  
Michiyo Okada ◽  
Tomoko Inoue ◽  
...  

Abstract Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is the most successful cellular therapy for the malignant hematopoietic diseases such as leukemia, and early recovery of host’s hematopoiesis after HSC transplantation has eagerly been expected to reduce the regimen related toxicity for many years. For the establishment of the safer and more efficient cell source for allogeneic or autologous HSC transplantation, HSCs differentiated from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that show indefinite proliferation in an undifferentiated state and pluripotency, are considered to be one of the best candidates. Unfortunately, despite many recent efforts, the HSC-specific differentiation from ESCs and iPSCs remains poor [Kaufman, DS et al., 2001][Ledran MH et al., 2008]. In this study, we developed the new method to differentiate HSC from non-human primate ESC/iPSC. It has been reported that common marmoset (CM), a non-human primate, is a suitable experimental animal for the preclinical studies of HSC therapy [Hibino H et al., 1999]. We have been investigated the hematopoietic differentiation of CM ESCs into HSCs, and previously reported that the induction of CD34+ cells having a blood colony forming capacity from CM ESCs were promoted by lentiviral transduction of TAL1 cDNA [Kurita R et al., 2006]. However, those CD34+ cells did not have a bone marrow reconstituting ability in irradiated NOG (NOD/Shi-scid/IL-2Rγnull) mice, suggesting that transduction of TAL1 gene was not sufficient to induce functional HSCs which have self-renewal capability and multipotency. Thus, we tried to find other hematopoietic genes being able to promote hematopoietic differetiation more efficiently than TAL1. We selected 6 genes (LYL1, HOXB4, BMI1, GATA2, c-MYB and LMO2) as candidates for factors that induce the differentiation of ESCs into HSCs, based on the previous study of hematopoietic differentiation from human and mouse ESCs. And CM ESCs (Cj11) lentivirally transduced with the respective candidate gene were processed for embryoid body (EB) formation to induce their differentiation into HSCs for 9 days. We found that lentiviral transduction of LYL1 (lymphoblastic leukemia 1), a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, in EBs markedly increased the proportion of cells positive for CD34 (approximately 20% of LYL1-transduced cells). RT-PCR showed that LYL1-transduced EBs expressed various hematopoietic genes, such as TAL1, RUNX1 and c-KIT. To examine whether these CD34+ cells have the ability to differentiate into hematopoietic cells in vitro, we performed colony-forming unit (CFU) assay, and found that CD34+ cells in LYL1-transduced EBs could form multi-lineage blood colonies. Furthermore the number of blood colonies originated from CD34+CD45+ cells in LYL1-transduced EBs was almost the same as that from CD34+CD45+ cells derived from CM bone marrow. These results suggested that enforced expression of LYL1 in CM ESCs promoted the emergence of HSCs by EB formation in vitro. The LYL1 was originally identified as the factor of a chromosomal translocation, resulting in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia [Mellentin JD et al., 1989]. The Lyl1-deficient mice display the reduction of B cells and impaired long-term hematopoietic reconstitution capacity [Capron C et al., 2006]. And, transduction of Lyl1 in mouse bone marrow cells induced the increase of HSCs and lymphocytes in vitro and in vivo [Lukov GL et al., 2011]. Therefore we hypothesized that LYL1 may play essential roles in bone marrow reconstitution by HSCs differentiated from CM ESCs. To examine this, we transplanted CD34+ cells derived from LYL1-transduced CM ESCs into bone marrow of sublethally irradiated NOG mice, and found that about 7% of CD45+ cells derived from CM ESCs were detected in peripheral blood (PB) of recipient mice at 8 weeks after transplant (n=4). Although CM CD45+ cells disappeared at 12 weeks after transplant, CD34+ cells (about 3%) were still found in bone marrow at the same time point. Given that TAL1-transduced EBs derived from CM ESCs could not reconstitute bone marrow of irradiated mice at all, LYL1 rather than TAL1 might be a more appropriate transcription factor that can give rise to CD34+ HSCs having the enhanced capability of bone marrow reconstitution from CM ESCs. We are planning to do in vivo study to prove this hypothesis in CM. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 2496-2496 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H Spencer ◽  
Margaret A. Young ◽  
Jeffery M. Klco ◽  
Timothy J. Ley

Abstract HOX genes encode a family of homeodomain transcription factors with important roles in hematopoiesis. Expression of HOX genes is also a common feature of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and functional studies have suggested that HOX-dependent pathways may contribute to leukemogenesis. Although HOX expression is known to correlate with specific AML mutations, the patterns of expression of all 39 HOX genes in primary AML samples, and their relationships with recurrent AML mutations, are incompletely understood. In addition, little is known about the influence of AML mutations on DNA methylation at the HOX loci, and the relationship between HOX gene expression and methylation in AML. In this study, we carried out a combined analysis of gene expression data from microarray and RNA-sequencing platforms and genome-wide DNA array-based methylation from 189 primary AML samples that have been previously characterized by either whole-genome or whole exome sequencing. We also measured expression and methylation using the same platforms from normal bone marrow subsets, including CD34+ cells, promyelocytes, monocytes, neutrophils and lymphocytes, and obtained expression data from CD34+ hematopoietic precursors generated from in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells. Our analysis confirmed previous work on the general patterns of HOX expression in AML. The HOXA and HOXB genes showed variation both within each cluster and across the AMLs, although high level expression was restricted to a subset of these genes, including HOXA3, HOXA5, HOXA7, HOXA9, HOXA10, HOXB2-HOXB4, and HOXB6, as well as HOX cofactor MEIS1; HOXC and HOXD genes were minimally expressed in all of the samples. These observations were orthogonally validated by RNA-seq, and with a targeted Nanostring expression platform. Consistent with previous studies, MLL-positive AML samples (n=11) expressed only HOXA genes and MEIS1. AML samples with CBFB-MYH11 rearrangements (n=12) showed expression of only MEIS1, and HOXB2-HOXB4 at moderate levels; RUNX1-RUNX1T1 (n=7) and PML-RARA (n=19) samples did not detectably express any HOX genes. In AMLs with a normal karyotype (n=85), we observed two distinct patterns; one pattern displayed little or no HOX gene expression (7/85; 8%), and another displayed canonical expression of a specific subset of the HOXA and HOXB genes and MEIS1 (78/85; 92%) with similar relative HOX gene expression levels in all cases. Comparison of this pattern with normal bone marrow revealed the same HOX expression pattern in normal CD34+ cells; additional analysis showed that this pattern was confined to hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, but was not seen in more mature cells, including other CD34+ subsets, promyelocytes, monocytes and neutrophils. We also measured HOX gene expression in CD34+ hematopoietic precursors generated from in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells, which revealed expression of only MEIS1 and the canonical HOXB genes, suggesting that activation of these genes may represent the earliest events in the HOX pathway of hematopoietic development. Correlation of HOX expression with recurrent AML mutations by gene set enrichment analysis demonstrated a significant association with NPM1 (P<10-4) and DNMT3A (P<10-2) mutations, but not with other recurrent somatic mutations, including FLT3,IDH1/IDH2, and TET2. Methylation at the HOX loci demonstrated patterns that correlated with HOX expression, including hypomethylation at HOX promoters in samples with high expression. However, additional mutation-specific patterns were apparent. For example, NPM1-mutant AMLs demonstrated a distinct methylation pattern that included hypomethylation at the HOXB3 promoter, which was not shared with CBFB-MYH11 cases or other AMLs with HOXB3 expression. In summary, our comprehensive analysis demonstrates canonical expression and methylation patterns at the HOX loci in AML. These patterns correspond to specific recurrent AML mutations, and the dominant pattern in most normal karyotype AMLs mimics the signature of hematopoietic stem cells. This supports previous observations of developmental regulation of HOX genes in hematopoiesis, and implies that this normal stem cell signature is “captured” in the majority of AMLs with normal karyotype. In addition, distinct methylation patterns at HOX loci suggest that multiple regulatory mechanisms are involved in HOX expression in AML. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 95 (9) ◽  
pp. 2813-2820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Gallacher ◽  
Barbara Murdoch ◽  
Dongmei M. Wu ◽  
Francis N. Karanu ◽  
Mike Keeney ◽  
...  

Recent evidence indicates that human hematopoietic stem cell properties can be found among cells lacking CD34 and lineage commitment markers (CD34−Lin−). A major barrier in the further characterization of human CD34− stem cells is the inability to detect this population using in vitro assays because these cells only demonstrate hematopoietic activity in vivo. Using cell surface markers AC133 and CD7, subfractions were isolated within CD34−CD38−Lin− and CD34+CD38−Lin− cells derived from human cord blood. Although the majority of CD34−CD38−Lin− cells lack AC133 and express CD7, an extremely rare population of AC133+CD7− cells was identified at a frequency of 0.2%. Surprisingly, these AC133+CD7− cells were highly enriched for progenitor activity at a frequency equivalent to purified fractions of CD34+ stem cells, and they were the only subset among the CD34−CD38−Lin− population capable of giving rise to CD34+ cells in defined liquid cultures. Human cells were detected in the bone marrow of non-obese/severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD/SCID) mice 8 weeks after transplantation of ex vivo–cultured AC133+CD7− cells isolated from the CD34−CD38−Lin− population, whereas 400-fold greater numbers of the AC133−CD7− subset had no engraftment ability. These studies provide novel insights into the hierarchical relationship of the human stem cell compartment by identifying a rare population of primitive human CD34− cells that are detectable after transplantation in vivo, enriched for in vitro clonogenic capacity, and capable of differentiation into CD34+ cells.


Blood ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 101 (5) ◽  
pp. 1759-1768 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Schiedlmeier ◽  
Hannes Klump ◽  
Elke Will ◽  
Gökhan Arman-Kalcek ◽  
Zhixiong Li ◽  
...  

Ectopic retroviral expression of homeobox B4 (HOXB4) causes an accelerated and enhanced regeneration of murine hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and is not known to compromise any program of lineage differentiation. However, HOXB4 expression levels for expansion of human stem cells have still to be established. To test the proposed hypothesis that HOXB4 could become a prime tool for in vivo expansion of genetically modified human HSCs, we retrovirally overexpressed HOXB4 in purified cord blood (CB) CD34+ cells together with green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a reporter protein, and evaluated the impact of ectopic HOXB4 expression on proliferation and differentiation in vitro and in vivo. When injected separately into nonobese diabetic–severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice or in competition with control vector–transduced cells, HOXB4-overexpressing cord blood CD34+ cells had a selective growth advantage in vivo, which resulted in a marked enhancement of the primitive CD34+ subpopulation (P = .01). However, high HOXB4 expression substantially impaired the myeloerythroid differentiation program, and this was reflected in a severe reduction of erythroid and myeloid progenitors in vitro (P < .03) and in vivo (P = .01). Furthermore, HOXB4 overexpression also significantly reduced B-cell output (P < .01). These results show for the first time unwanted side effects of ectopic HOXB4 expression and therefore underscore the need to carefully determine the therapeutic window of HOXB4 expression levels before initializing clinical trials.


Blood ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon L. McKinney-Freeman ◽  
Olaia Naveiras ◽  
Frank Yates ◽  
Sabine Loewer ◽  
Marsha Philitas ◽  
...  

Abstract Surface antigens on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) enable prospective isolation and characterization. Here, we compare the cell-surface phenotype of hematopoietic repopulating cells from murine yolk sac, aorta-gonad-mesonephros, placenta, fetal liver, and bone marrow with that of HSCs derived from the in vitro differentiation of murine embryonic stem cells (ESC-HSCs). Whereas c-Kit marks all HSC populations, CD41, CD45, CD34, and CD150 were developmentally regulated: the earliest embryonic HSCs express CD41 and CD34 and lack CD45 and CD150, whereas more mature HSCs lack CD41 and CD34 and express CD45 and CD150. ESC-HSCs express CD41 and CD150, lack CD34, and are heterogeneous for CD45. Finally, although CD48 was absent from all in vivo HSCs examined, ESC-HSCs were heterogeneous for the expression of this molecule. This unique phenotype signifies a developmentally immature population of cells with features of both primitive and mature HSC. The prospective fractionation of ESC-HSCs will facilitate studies of HSC maturation essential for normal functional engraftment in irradiated adults.


2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1312-1320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen C. Teng ◽  
Lance R. Todd ◽  
Thomas J. Ribar ◽  
William Lento ◽  
Leah Dimascio ◽  
...  

Growth factor erv1-like (Gfer) is an evolutionarily conserved sulfhydryl oxidase that is enriched in embryonic and adult stem cells and plays an essential prosurvival role in pluripotent embryonic stem cells. Here we show that knockdown (KD) of Gfer in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) compromises their in vivo engraftment potential and triggers a hyper-proliferative response that leads to their exhaustion. KD of Gfer in HSCs does not elicit a significant alteration of mitochondrial morphology or loss of cell viability. However, these cells possess significantly reduced levels of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27kip1. In contrast, overexpression of Gfer in HSCs results in significantly elevated total and nuclear p27kip1. KD of Gfer results in enhanced binding of p27kip1 to its inhibitor, the COP9 signalosome subunit jun activation-domain binding protein 1 (Jab1), leading to its down-regulation. Conversely, overexpression of Gfer results in its enhanced binding to Jab1 and inhibition of the Jab1-p27kip1 interaction. Furthermore, normalization of p27kip1 in Gfer-KD HSCs rescues their in vitro proliferation deficits. Taken together, our data demonstrate the presence of a novel Gfer-Jab1-p27kip1 pathway in HSCs that functions to restrict abnormal proliferation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taro Ishigaki ◽  
Kazuhiro Sudo ◽  
Takashi Hiroyama ◽  
Kenichi Miharada ◽  
Haruhiko Ninomiya ◽  
...  

We previously reported that long-lasting in vitro hematopoiesis could be achieved using the cells differentiated from primate embryonic stem (ES) cells. Thus, we speculated that hematopoietic stem cells differentiated from ES cells could sustain long-lasting in vitro hematopoiesis. To test this hypothesis, we investigated whether human hematopoietic stem cells could similarly sustain long-lasting in vitro hematopoiesis in the same culture system. Although the results varied between experiments, presumably due to differences in the quality of each hematopoietic stem cell sample, long-lasting in vitro hematopoiesis was observed to last up to nine months. Furthermore, an in vivo analysis in which cultured cells were transplanted into immunodeficient mice indicated that even after several months of culture, hematopoietic stem cells were still present in the cultured cells. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to show that human hematopoietic stem cells can survive in vitro for several months.


Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (21) ◽  
pp. 516-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Goff ◽  
Alice Shih ◽  
Angela Court Recart ◽  
Larisa Balaian ◽  
Ryan Chuang ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 516 Introduction: Several studies have demonstrated the role of leukemia stem cells (LSC) in the development and maintenance of human chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). These cells, which first develop in chronic phase CML (CP CML) with acquisition of the BCR-ABL fusion protein, are often quiescent and can be highly resistant to apoptosis induced by drugs and radiotherapy that target rapidly dividing cells. Data has also shown that CML LSC become increasingly resistant to BCR-ABL inhibition with progression to blast crisis CML (BC CML). Bcl-2 family proteins are key regulators of apoptosis and have been shown by numerous studies to regulate cancer resistance to chemotherapy. This family of proteins has also been implicated in the development of BC CML, however most studies have focused on CML cell lines and their expression of Bcl-2 family proteins in vitro. Thus, there is relatively little data on expression of Bcl-2 family proteins in primary CML LSC and on the role of these proteins in regulating chemotherapy resistance in CML LSC in vivo. As Bcl-2 family proteins are known regulators of chemotherapy resistance we hypothesized that human BC CML LSC may overexpress these proteins compared to normal hematopoietic stem cells. We analyzed Bcl-2 family mRNA and protein expression in CP CML and BC CML LSC and compared this expression to normal cord blood stem and progenitor cells. We also analyzed whether these cells were sensitive to chemotherapy treatment in vitro. Finally, we tested whether a high potency pan-Bcl-2 inhibitor, 97C1, could effectively kill CML LSC in vitro and in vivo. Methods: Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 protein expression was measured in primary CP CML, BC CML, and normal cord blood cells using intracellular FACS. We also measured Bcl-2, Mcl-1, Bcl-X, and Bfl-1 mRNA expression in FACS sorted CD34+CD38+lin− cells (LSC) from these samples. For all drug studies we used either serially transplanted CD34+ cells derived from primary BC CML patient samples or primary CD34+ normal cord blood cells. In vitro drug responses were tested by culturing CD34+ cells either alone or in co-culture with a mouse bone marrow stromal cell line (SL/M2). Effects on colony formation and replating were also tested by culturing sorted CD34+CD38+lin− cells in methylcellulose in the presence and absence of drug. For in vivo testing of 97C1 we transplanted neonatal RAG2-/-yc-/- mice with CD34+ cells from 3 different BC CML and cord blood samples. Transplanted mice were screened for peripheral blood engraftment at 6–8 weeks post-transplant and engrafted mice were then treated for 2 weeks with 97C1 by IP injection. Following the treatment period the mice were sacrificed and hemotapoietic organs were analyzed for human engraftment by FACS. Results: BC CML progenitors expressed higher levels of Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 protein compared to normal cord blood and chronic phase CML cells. mRNA expression of Mcl-1, Bcl-X, and Bfl-1 was also increased in BC CML progenitors compared to CP CML progenitors. While BC CML LSC cultured in vitro were resistant to etoposide and dasatinib-induced cell death, 97C1 treatment led to a dose-dependent increase in cell death along with a dose-dependent decrease in the frequency of CD34+CD38+lin− cells compared to vehicle treated controls. While cord blood progenitor cells were also sensitive to 97C1 treatment they had an IC50 around 10 times higher than that for the BC CML cells (100nM versus 10nM). Importantly, 97C1 treatment did not inhibit cord blood colony formation or colony replating in vitro. Mice transplanted with BC CML LSC developed CML in 6–8 weeks post-transplant with diffuse myeloid sarcomas and engraftment of human CD34+CD38+lin− cells in the peripheral blood, liver, spleen, and bone marrow. In vivo treatment with 97C1 led to a significant reduction in both total human engraftment and engraftment of CD34+CD38+lin− cells in all hematopoietic organs analyzed. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that BC CML LSC are resistant to conventional chemotherapy but are sensitive to 97C1 in vitro and in vivo. Broad-spectrum inhibition of Bcl-2 family proteins may help to eliminate CML LSC while sparing normal hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Disclosures: Jamieson: CoronadoBiosciences: Research Funding; CIRM: Research Funding.


2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 352
Author(s):  
B. M. Murray ◽  
S. Schmoelzl ◽  
N. M. Andronicos ◽  
J. R. Hill ◽  
P. J. Verma ◽  
...  

The optimization of culture media to support the isolation of embryonic stem cells relies on methods to monitor whether the pluripotent state of the cultured cells has been maintained. We developed a panel of gene expression assays that allowed us to correlate molecular measures of pluripotency or lineage differentiation with a developmental time course. By conducting quantitative PCR analysis of sheep embryos over Day 6.5 to 24 and sheep inner cell mass (ICM) cells cultured over 25 days, we tested whether culture media designed to inhibit differentiation are able to maintain sheep ICM cells in a pluripotent state. Briefly, embryos were collected from Merino ewes (n = 50, 3 years) at Day 6.5, 12, 16, 20, and 24 post-AI. Embryos were collected from the dissected uterine tracts of slaughtered ewes, excluding Day 6.5 blastocysts, which were surgically recovered from superovulated ewes. For the in vitro culture, Day 6.5 ICM cells were isolated by immunosurgery and cultured on mitomycin-C-treated mouse embryonic fibroblasts in an inhibitor-based medium (3i, based on Ying Q-L et al. 2008 Nature 453, 519-523). Real-time PCR assays for pluripotency (OCT4, SOX2, NANOG) and differentiation (ectodermal: FGF5, PAX6; endodermal: GATA4, GATA6, Somatostatin; mesodermal: BMP4, Connexin40) of sheep candidate genes were conducted on cDNA prepared from these samples and normalized against the reference genes RPL19 and RPS26. In in vivo embryos, pluripotency markers OCT4, SOX2, and NANOG all decreased between Day 6.5 and Day 20, although OCT4 expression spiked around Day 16. More interestingly, pluripotency expression decreased during in vitro culture, with NANOG expression completely lost by passage 2 at Day 11 and OCT4 expression at an equivalent Day 24 embryo basal level by Day 14. The endodermal markers GATA6 and GATA4 decreased between Day 6.5 and Day 12, respectively, although in vitro GATA4 was only expressed once at Day 7. In vivo FGF5 and both PAX6 and Somatostatin displayed a delayed onset, increasing expression from Day 16 and 20, respectively, whereas the ectodermal markers were already expressed by Day 7 in vitro. Both mesodermal markers Connexin40 and BMP4 presented minor fold changes in both data sets. In conclusion, this study has verified the primer sets and described a sheep in vivo embryo gene expression profile comprising both pluripotent and differentiation candidates. Furthermore, the decrease of pluripotency markers together with the appearance of differentiation markers during in vitro culture of ICM cells suggest that culturing ICM cells in 3i media is not sufficient to maintain a sheep-specific pluripotent population of cells. Therefore, future studies will be aimed at manipulating the current in vitro system to focus on maintaining pluripotent genes such as NANOG and OCT4 in culture.


Blood ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 117 (14) ◽  
pp. 3748-3758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenji Kitajima ◽  
Ken-ichi Minehata ◽  
Kenji Sakimura ◽  
Toru Nakano ◽  
Takahiko Hara

Abstract Identification of genes involved in in vitro differentiation induction of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) has been challenged during last decade. To date, a homeobox transcription factor Hoxb4 has been only demonstrated to possess such an effect in mice. Here, we show that HSC-like cells were efficiently induced from mouse ESCs by enforced expression of Lhx2, a LIM-homeobox transcription factor. Transduction of Lhx2 into ESC-derived mesodermal cells resulted in robust differentiation of c-Kit+/Sca-1+/Lineage− (KSL) cells in vitro. The KSL cell induction frequency was superior to the case of Hoxb4. Furthermore, transplantation of Lhx2-transduced hematopoietic cells into lethally irradiated mice resulted in multilineage repopulation of hematopoietic cells over 4 months. Transduction of Lhx2 into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) was also effective in generating KSL cells in vitro, as well as HSC-like activities in vivo. These results demonstrate that ectopic expression of Lhx2 confers an in vivo engrafting capacity to ESC/iPSC-derived hematopoietic cells and in vivo behavior of iPSC-derived hematopoietic cells is almost identical to that of ESC-derived cells.


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