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Activation of Pluripotency Genes in Human Fibroblast Cells by a Novel mRNA Based Approach

Plews, JR; Li, JL; Jones, M; Moore, HD; Mason, C; Andrews, PW; Na, J; (2010) Activation of Pluripotency Genes in Human Fibroblast Cells by a Novel mRNA Based Approach. PLOS ONE , 5 (12) , Article e14397. 10.1371/journal.pone.0014397. Green open access

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Abstract

Background: Several methods have been used to induce somatic cells to re-enter the pluripotent state. Viral transduction of reprogramming genes yields higher efficiency but involves random insertions of viral sequences into the human genome. Although induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be obtained with the removable PiggyBac transposon system or an episomal system, both approaches still use DNA constructs so that resulting cell lines need to be thoroughly analyzed to confirm they are free of harmful genetic modification. Thus a method to change cell fate without using DNA will be very useful in regenerative medicine.Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, we synthesized mRNAs encoding OCT4, SOX2, cMYC, KLF4 and SV40 large T (LT) and electroporated them into human fibroblast cells. Upon transfection, fibroblasts expressed these factors at levels comparable to, or higher than those in human embryonic stem (ES) cells. Ectopically expressed OCT4 localized to the cell nucleus within 4 hours after mRNA introduction. Transfecting fibroblasts with a mixture of mRNAs encoding all five factors significantly increased the expression of endogenous OCT4, NANOG, DNMT3 beta, REX1 and SALL4. When such transfected fibroblasts were also exposed to several small molecules (valproic acid, BIX01294 and 5'-aza-2'-deoxycytidine) and cultured in human embryonic stem cell (ES) medium they formed small aggregates positive for alkaline phosphatase activity and OCT4 protein within 30 days.Conclusion/Significance: Our results demonstrate that mRNA transfection can be a useful approach to precisely control the protein expression level and short-term expression of reprogramming factors is sufficient to activate pluripotency genes in differentiated cells.

Type: Article
Title: Activation of Pluripotency Genes in Human Fibroblast Cells by a Novel mRNA Based Approach
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014397
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0014397
Language: English
Additional information: © 2010 Plews et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This research was supported by grants to PWA from the MRC and from the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme to the ESTOOLS Integrated Project Consortium. JN was supported by an MRC Stem Cell Career Development Fellowship. JP was supported by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) PhD studentship. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Keywords: HUMAN IPSC INDUCTION, STEM-CELLS, DEFINED FACTORS, DENDRITIC CELLS, SOMATIC-CELLS, GENERATION, EXPRESSION, DIFFERENTIATION, MOLECULES, RESPONSES
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Biochemical Engineering
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/741412
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