This chapter describes the methods we use to derive and characterize human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. We describe in order, first our culture techniques for the starting fibroblast populations and methods for retrovirus preparation and concentration. Subsequently, a detailed iPS derivation protocol suitable for human fibroblast populations is discussed using standard retroviral vecto...

Forced expression of certain transcription factors in somatic cells results in generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which differentiate into various cell types. We investigated T-cell and B-cell lineage differentiation from iPS cells in vitro. To evaluate the impact of iPS cell source, murine splenic B-cell-derived iPS (B-iPS) cells were generated after retroviral transduction of...

BACKGROUND For cell therapies to treat diabetes, it is important to produce a sufficient number of pancreatic endocrine cells that function similarly to primary islets. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells represent a potentially unlimited source of functional pancreatic endocrine cells. However, the use of iPS cells for laboratory studies and cell-based therapies is hampered by their high tumo...

Clinical barriers to stem-cell therapy include the need for efficient derivation of histocompatible stem cells and the zoonotic risk inherent to human stem-cell xenoculture on mouse feeder cells. We describe a system for efficiently deriving induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from human and mouse amniocytes, and for maintaining the pluripotency of these iPS cells on mitotically inactivated fe...

Sertoli cells constitute the structural framework in testis and provide an immune-privileged environment for germ cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) resemble embryonic stem cells (ES cells) and are generated from somatic cells by expression of specific reprogramming transcription factors. Here, we used C57BL/6 (B6) Sertoli cells to generate iPS cells (Ser-iPS cells) and compared ...

Global demethylation is required for early zygote development to establish stem cell pluripotency, yet our findings reiterate this epigenetic reprogramming event in somatic cells through ectopic introduction of mir-302 function. Here, we report that induced mir-302 expression beyond 1.3-fold of the concentration in human embryonic stem (hES) H1 and H9 cells led to reprogramming of human hair fo...

BACKGROUND While a shift towards non-viral and animal component-free methods of generating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells is preferred for safer clinical applications, there is still a shortage of reliable cell sources and protocols for efficient reprogramming. METHODS Here, we show a robust episomal and xeno-free reprogramming strategy for human iPS generation from dental pulp stem cel...

PURPOSE This study aimed to develop a feasible and efficient method for generating embryonic stem cell (ESC)-like induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from human Tenon's capsule fibroblasts (HTFs) through the expression of a defined set of transcription factors, which will have significant application value for ophthalmic personalized regenerative medicine. METHODS HTFs were harvested from fr...

The ability to induce somatic cells to pluripotency by ectopic expression of defined transcription factors (e.g. KLF-4, OCT4, SOX2, c-MYC, or KOSM) has transformed the future of regenerative medicine. Here we report somatic cell reprogramming of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), yielding induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells with the fastest kinetics, and one of the highest reprog...

Using quantitative PCR-based miRNA arrays, we comprehensively analyzed the expression profiles of miRNAs in human and mouse embryonic stem (ES), induced pluripotent stem (iPS), and somatic cells. Immature pluripotent cells were purified using SSEA-1 or SSEA-4 and were used for miRNA profiling. Hierarchical clustering and consensus clustering by nonnegative matrix factorization showed two major ...