Frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism-17 is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by pathological aggregation of the tau protein with the formation of neurofibrillary tangles and subsequent neuronal death. The inherited form of frontotemporal dementia can be caused by mutations in several genes, including the MAPT gene on chromosome 17, which encodes the tau protein. As there are currently no medically approved treatments for frontotemporal dementia, there is an urgent need for research using in vitro cell models to understand the molecular genetic mechanisms that lead to the development of the disease, to identify targets for therapeutic intervention and to test potential drugs to prevent neuronal death.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe clinical significance of numerous cardiovascular gene variants remains to be determined. CRISPR/Cas9 allows for the introduction and/or correction of a certain variant in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The resulting isogenic iPSC lines can be differentiated into cardiomyocytes and used as a platform to assess the pathogenicity of the variant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFamilial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a systemic autoinflammatory disorder caused by inherited mutations in the (Mediterranean FeVer) gene, located on chromosome 16 (16p13.3) and encoding the pyrin protein. Despite the existing data on mutations, the exact mechanism of their effect on the development of the pathological processes leading to the spontaneous and recurrent autoinflammatory attacks observed in FMF, remains unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line, ICGi040-A, was obtained from skin fibroblasts derived from a male patient with mosaic ring small supernumerary marker chromosome 4 (sSMS(4)) and infertility. ICGi040-A cells have karyotype 47,XY,+r(4) in 97% of cells and express a set of pluripotent markers, as well as are able to differentiate in vitro into derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrinucleotide repeat expansion diseases such as fragile X syndrome are of great interest to study since the mechanism of its development is still unknown. IPS cell lines are some of the most convenient models for studying. The ICGi032-A iPS cell line was obtained from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of the patient affected with fragile X syndrome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpansion over 200 CGG repeats in FMR1 gene causes inherited intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder named as fragile X syndrome. Despite the known cause fragile X syndrome pathogenesis has not been specified yet. The ICGi026-A iPSCs line was obtained by the reprogramming of the peripheral blood mononuclear cells from a 9-year-old boy with fragile X syndrome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuntington's disease (HD) is a severe neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG triplet expansion in the first exon of the gene. Here we report the introduction of an HD mutation into the genome of healthy human embryonic fibroblasts through CRISPR/Cas9-mediated homologous recombination. We verified the specificity of the created -editing system and confirmed the absence of undesirable genomic modifications at off-target sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRing chromosomes are structural aberrations commonly associated with disease phenotype. We consider necessary to create the iPSCs with a ring chromosome 8, which can be used for disease modeling and related research. The ICGi025-A iPSCs line was obtained by the reprogramming of the skin fibroblasts from a 1-year-old boy with 46,XY,r(8)/45,XY,-8 mosaicism, developmental delay, microcephaly, dysmorphic features, diffuse muscle hypotonia, moderate proximal muscle weakness, feeding problems, and motor alalia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe studied the level of spontaneous telomere dysfunction in Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout, 1769) (Rodentia, Muridae) embryonic fibroblasts (rEFs) and in cultured in vitro rat pluripotent stem cells (rPSCs), embryonic stem cells (rESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (riPSCs), on early passages and after prolonged cultivation. Among studied cell lines, rESCs showed the lowest level of telomere dysfunction, while the riPSCs demonstrated an elevated level on early passages of cultivation. In cultivation, the frequency of dysfunctional telomeres has increased in all studied cell lines; this is particularly true for dysfunctional telomeres occurring in G1 stage in riPSCs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) capable of differentiation into required cell type are a promising model for studying various pathological processes and development of new therapeutic approaches. However, no conventional strategies for using iPSCs in disease research have been established yet. Genetically encoded biosensors can be used for monitoring messenger molecules, metabolites, and enzyme activity in real time with the following conversion of the registered signals in quantitative data, thus allowing evaluation of the impact of certain molecules on pathology development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines ICGi008-A and ICGi008-B were generated from dermal fibroblasts using episomal vectors expressing pluripotency factors. Dermal fibroblasts were obtained from a 55 year old male Сaucasian familial Alzheimer's disease (AD) patient carrying heterozygous V717I mutation in the APP gene. The generated iPSC lines maintained the original APP genotype, expressed pluripotency markers, exhibited a normal karyotype and retained the ability to differentiate into cell types of the three germ layers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease caused by mutation in the HTT gene encoding HTT protein. The mutant protein leads to the neuronal death through dysregulation of multiple cellular processes. HD human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent a useful and valid model for the disease study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreviously, we described the unique feature of telomeric regions in Iberian shrew Sorex granarius: its telomeres have two ranges of size, very small (3.8 kb of telomeric repeats on average) and very large discontinuous telomeres (213 kb) interrupted with 18S rDNA. In this study, we have demonstrated extraordinary replication pattern of S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe telomere structure in the Iberian shrew Sorex granarius is characterized by unique, striking features, with short arms of acrocentric chromosomes carrying extremely long telomeres (up to 300 kb) with interspersed ribosomal DNA (rDNA) repeat blocks. In this work, we investigated the telomere physiology of S. granarius fibroblast cells and found that telomere repeats are transcribed on both strands and that there is no telomere-dependent senescence mechanism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe rat represents an important animal model that, in many respects, is superior to the mouse for dissecting behavioral, cardiovascular and other physiological pathologies relevant to humans. Derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells from rats (riPS) opens the opportunity for gene targeting in specific rat strains, as well as for the development of new protocols for the treatment of different degenerative diseases. Here, we report an improved lentivirus-based hit-and-run riPS derivation protocol that makes use of small inhibitors of MEK and GSK3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo closely related shrew species, Sorex granarius and Sorex araneus, in which Robertsonian rearrangements have played a primary role in karyotype evolution, present very distinct telomere length patterns. S. granarius displays hyperlong telomeres specifically associated with the short arms of acrocentrics, whereas telomere lengths in S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA major problem in studies of synaptonemal complexes (SC) is the difficulty in distinguishing individual chromosomes. This problem can be solved combining SC immunostaining with FISH of chromosome-specific sequences. However, this procedure is expensive, time-consuming and applicable only to a very limited number of species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSorex araneus and Sorex granarius are sibling species within the Sorex araneus group with karyotypes composed of almost identical chromosome arms. S. granarius has a largely acrocentric karyotype, while, in S.
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