Non-apoptotic regulated cell death in Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy.

Introduction: Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) is the leading cause of corneal blindness in developed countries. Corneal endothelial cells in FECD are susceptive to oxidative stress, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death. Oxidative stress causes many forms of cell death including parthanatos, which is characterized by translocation of apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) to the nucleus with upregulation of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) and poly (ADP-ribose) (PAR).

Novel Drug Candidates Improve Ganglioside Accumulation and Neural Dysfunction in GM1 Gangliosidosis Models with Autophagy Activation.

GM1 gangliosidosis is a lysosomal storage disease caused by loss of lysosomal β-galactosidase activity and characterized by progressive neurodegeneration due to massive accumulation of GM1 ganglioside in the brain. Here, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from patients with GM1 gangliosidosis, and the resultant neurons showed impaired neurotransmitter release as a presynaptic function and accumulation of GM1 ganglioside. Treatment of normal neurons with GM1 ganglioside also disturbed presynaptic function.

Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Human Melanoma Tumor-infiltrating Lymphocytes.

Adoptive transfer of ex vivo expanded autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) can mediate durable and complete responses in significant subsets of patients with metastatic melanoma. Major obstacles of this approach are the reduced viability of transferred T cells, caused by telomere shortening, and the limited number of TILs obtained from patients. Less-differentiated T cells with long telomeres would be an ideal T cell subset for adoptive T cell therapy;however, generating large numbers of these less-differentiated T cells is problematic.

Reprogramming of Melanoma Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes to Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from somatic cells of patients hold great promise for autologous cell therapies. One of the possible applications of iPSCs is to use them as a cell source for producing autologous lymphocytes for cell-based therapy against cancer. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) that express programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) are tumor-reactive T cells, and adoptive cell therapy with autologous TILs has been found to achieve durable complete response in selected patients with metastatic melanoma.

Plastin 3 is upregulated in iPSC-derived motoneurons from asymptomatic SMN1-deleted individuals.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a devastating motoneuron (MN) disorder caused by homozygous loss of SMN1. Rarely, SMN1-deleted individuals are fully asymptomatic despite carrying identical SMN2 copies as their SMA III-affected siblings suggesting protection by genetic modifiers other than SMN2. High plastin 3 (PLS3) expression has previously been found in lymphoblastoid cells but not in fibroblasts of asymptomatic compared to symptomatic siblings.

Brief report: isogenic induced pluripotent stem cell lines from an adult with mosaic down syndrome model accelerated neuronal ageing and neurodegeneration.

Trisomy 21 (T21), Down Syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic cause of dementia and intellectual disability. Modeling DS is beginning to yield pharmaceutical therapeutic interventions for amelioration of intellectual disability, which are currently being tested in clinical trials. DS is also a unique genetic system for investigation of pathological and protective mechanisms for accelerated ageing, neurodegeneration, dementia, cancer, and other important common diseases.

HPGCD outperforms HPBCD as a potential treatment for Niemann-Pick disease type C during disease modeling with iPS cells.

Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is a lysosomal storage disease characterized by abnormal accumulation of free cholesterol and glycolipids. Here, we established induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from NPC patients. Hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) and neural progenitors derived from the iPSC lines accumulated cholesterol and displayed impaired autophagy and ATP production.

Derivation of iPSCs after culture of human dental pulp cells under defined conditions.

Human dental pulp cells (hDPCs) are a promising resource for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering and can be used for derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). However, current protocols use reagents of animal origin (mainly fetal bovine serum, FBS) that carry the potential risk of infectious diseases and unwanted immunogenicity. Here, we report a chemically defined protocol to isolate and maintain the growth and differentiation potential of hDPCs.

New type of Sendai virus vector provides transgene-free iPS cells derived from chimpanzee blood.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are potentially valuable cell sources for disease models and future therapeutic applications; however, inefficient generation and the presence of integrated transgenes remain as problems limiting their current use. Here, we developed a new Sendai virus vector, TS12KOS, which has improved efficiency, does not integrate into the cellular DNA, and can be easily eliminated. TS12KOS carries KLF4, OCT3/4, and SOX2 in a single vector and can easily generate iPSCs from human blood cells.

Generation of familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy-specific induced pluripotent stem cells.

Familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP) is a hereditary amyloidosis induced by amyloidogenic transthyretin (ATTR). Because most transthyretin (TTR) in serum is synthesized by the liver, liver transplantation (LT) is today the only treatment available to halt the progression of FAP, even though LT is associated with several problems. Despite the urgent need to develop alternatives to LT, the detailed pathogenesis of FAP is still unknown; also, no model fully represents the relevant processes in patients with FAP.

Human iPSC-based modeling of late-onset disease via progerin-induced aging.

Reprogramming somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) resets their identity back to an embryonic age and, thus, presents a significant hurdle for modeling late-onset disorders. In this study, we describe a strategy for inducing aging-related features in human iPSC-derived lineages and apply it to the modeling of Parkinson's disease (PD). Our approach involves expression of progerin, a truncated form of lamin A associated with premature aging.

Induced pluripotent stem cell reprogramming by integration-free Sendai virus vectors from peripheral blood of patients with craniometaphyseal dysplasia.

Studies of rare genetic bone disorders are often limited due to unavailability of tissue specimens and the lack of animal models fully replicating phenotypic features. Craniometaphyseal dysplasia (CMD) is a rare monogenic disorder characterized by hyperostosis of craniofacial bones concurrent with abnormal shape of long bones. Mutations for autosomal dominant CMD have been identified in the ANK gene (ANKH).

Effect of administration of reprogramming factors in the mouse liver.

Cancer is initiated by the transformation of stem cells or progenitor cells via a dedifferentiation process that leads to cancer stem cells; however, the process involves the activation of growth-promoting oncogenes and the inactivation of growth-constraining tumor suppressor genes. The introduction of defined factors, such as those encoded by , , / and in normal somatic cells results in their dedifferentiation into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. We previously reported that these defined factors induced the development of induced multipotent cancer (iPC) cells from gastrointestinal cancer cells by reducing tumor aggressiveness.

Blood cell-derived induced pluripotent stem cells free of reprogramming factors generated by Sendai viral vectors.

The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) holds great promise for regenerative medicine since it is possible to produce patient-specific pluripotent stem cells from affected individuals for potential autologous treatment. Using nonintegrating cytoplasmic Sendai viral vectors, we generated iPSCs efficiently from adult mobilized CD34⁺ and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. After 5-8 passages, the Sendai viral genome could not be detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

Transgene-free disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

The induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology enables derivation of patient-specific pluripotent stem cells from adult somatic cells without using an embryonic cell source. Redifferentiation of iPSCs from diabetic patients into pancreatic islets will allow patient-specific disease modeling and autologous cell replacement therapy for failing islets. To date, diabetes-specific iPSCs have been generated from patients with type 1 diabetes using integrating retroviral vectors.

Pathogenic mutation of ALK2 inhibits induced pluripotent stem cell reprogramming and maintenance: mechanisms of reprogramming and strategy for drug identification.

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare congenital disorder characterized by progressive ossification of soft tissues. FOP is caused by mutations in activin receptor-like kinase 2 (ALK2) that cause its constitutive activation and result in dysregulation of BMP signaling. Here, we show that generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from FOP-derived skin fibroblasts is repressed because of incomplete reprogramming and inhibition of iPSC maintenance.

Generation of virus-free induced pluripotent stem cell clones on a synthetic matrix via a single cell subcloning in the naïve state.

CD34+ cord blood cells can be reprogrammed effectively on dishes coated with a synthetic RGD motif polymer (PronectinF®) using a temperature sensitive Sendai virus vector (SeV TS7) carrying reprogramming factors OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC. Dish-shaped human ES cell-like colonies emerged in serum-free primate ES cell medium (supplemented with bFGF) in 20% O2 culture conditions. The copy numbers of SeV TS7 vectors in the cytoplasm were drastically reduced by a temperature shift at 38°C for three days.

Targeted gene correction of α1-antitrypsin deficiency in induced pluripotent stem cells.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent a unique opportunity for regenerative medicine because they offer the prospect of generating unlimited quantities of cells for autologous transplantation, with potential application in treatments for a broad range of disorders. However, the use of human iPSCs in the context of genetically inherited human disease will require the correction of disease-causing mutations in a manner that is fully compatible with clinical applications. The methods currently available, such as homologous recombination, lack the necessary efficiency and also leave residual sequences in the targeted genome.

Downregulation of KIF23 suppresses glioma proliferation.

To identify therapeutic molecular targets for glioma, we performed modified serological identification of antigens by recombinant complementary DNA (cDNA) expression cloning using sera from a mouse glioma model. Two clones, kinesin family member 23 (Kif23) and structural maintenance of chromosomes 4 (Smc4), were identified as antigens through immunological reaction with sera from mice harboring synergic GL261 mouse glioma and intratumoral inoculation with a mutant herpes simplex virus. The human Kif23 homolog KIF23 is a nuclear protein that localizes to the interzone of mitotic spindles, acting as a plus-end-directed motor enzyme that moves antiparallel microtubules in vitro.

Efficient generation of transgene-free human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by temperature-sensitive Sendai virus vectors.

After the first report of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), considerable efforts have been made to develop more efficient methods for generating iPSCs without foreign gene insertions. Here we show that Sendai virus vector, an RNA virus vector that carries no risk of integrating into the host genome, is a practical solution for the efficient generation of safer iPSCs. We improved the Sendai virus vectors by introducing temperature-sensitive mutations so that the vectors could be easily removed at nonpermissive temperatures.

Generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells from cord blood cells.

We report that iPS cells can be safely and effectively generated from fresh human cord blood (CB) cells with Sendai virus (SeV) vector carrying reprogramming factors OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4, and c-MYC. The SeV vector is a single strand RNA virus having no DNA phase, and selectively infects the freshly isolated CD34+ CD45low+ fraction of CB cells corresponding to hematopoietic progenitors. Approximately twenty ES cell-like colonies emerged from 1 x 104 freshly isolated CD34+ CB cells around 18 days after SeV infection and were selected for passage to reduce the frequency of the remaining SeV-infected cells.

Efficient induction of transgene-free human pluripotent stem cells using a vector based on Sendai virus, an RNA virus that does not integrate into the host genome.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) have been generated from somatic cells by introducing reprogramming factors. Integration of foreign genes into the host genome is a technical hurdle for the clinical application. Here, we show that Sendai virus (SeV), an RNA virus and carries no risk of altering host genome, is an efficient solution for generating safe iPSC.