ABSTRACT: Embryonic stem (ES) cells and ES cell-derived progeny characterized by nestin expression (including neural progenitors) were studied (three independent experiments). The mouse ES cell line R1 was cultured on a feeder layer of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (FL). ES cells were differentiated into nestin-positive cells for 4+8 days and 4+11 days according to the differentiation protocol by Rolletschek et al. (Mechanisms of Development 105, 93-104, 2001). The study was performed with three independent cell cultures (= triplicates). RNA was prepared from both undifferentiated ES cells and ES cell-derived nestin-positive cells, and from fibroblast feeder cells. Keywords = ES cell Keywords = nestin positive cells Keywords = feeder layer Keywords: other
Project description:Embryonic stem (ES) cells and ES cell-derived progeny characterized by nestin expression (including neural progenitors) were studied (three independent experiments). The mouse ES cell line R1 was cultured on a feeder layer of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (FL). ES cells were differentiated into nestin-positive cells for 4+8 days and 4+11 days according to the differentiation protocol by Rolletschek et al. (Mechanisms of Development 105, 93-104, 2001). The study was performed with three independent cell cultures (= triplicates). RNA was prepared from both undifferentiated ES cells and ES cell-derived nestin-positive cells, and from fibroblast feeder cells.
Project description:Tissue from the telencephalon was isolated from E13.5 BALB/C mouse and allowed to culture as neurospheres in the presence of FGF2. These cultures were assessed for undifferentiated neural stem cells by the expression of Nestin and were found to be ~98% Nestin positive. Comparisons of these nestin positive neural stem cells will be made to R1 ES cells to identify the genes that are important in totipotent, self-renewing ES cells vs. commitment to the multipotent, self-renewing neural stem cell phenotype. Keywords: other
Project description:Mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells are indispensable for gene targeting approaches to study gene functions and regulations, the production of animal models for human diseases, and in vitro cell differentiation studies. The proven pluripotency of ES cells is expected to allow their therapeutic use for regenerative medicine. We present here a novel suspension culture method that facilitates the proliferation of pluripotent ES cells without feeder cells. The culture medium is free of either animal-derived or synthetic serum, and contains very low amounts of peptidic or proteinaceous materials, which are favorable for therapeutic use. ES cells showed sustained proliferation in the suspension culture, and their undifferentiated state and pluripotency were experimentally verified. DNA microarray analyses showed a close relationship between the elevated expression of genes related to cell adhesions and activation of the WNT signaling pathway. We suggest that this suspension culture condition provides a better alternative to the conventional attached cell culture condition, especially for possible therapeutic use, by limiting the exposure of ES cells to feeder cells and animal products. Keywords: reference design,replicate design
Project description:The intermediate filament protein Nestin serves as a biomarker for stem cells and has been used to identify subsets of cancer stem-like cells. However, the mechanistic contributions of Nestin to cancer pathogenesis are not understood. Here we report that Nestin binds the hedgehog pathway transcription factor Gli3 to mediate the development of medulloblastomas of the hedgehog subtype. In a mouse model system, Nestin levels increased progressively during medulloblastoma formation resulting in enhanced tumor growth. Conversely, loss of Nestin dramatically inhibited proliferation and promoted differentiation. Mechanistic investigations revealed that the tumor-promoting effects of Nestin were mediated by binding to Gli3, a zinc finger transcription factor that negatively regulates hedgehog signaling. Nestin binding to Gli3 blocked Gli3 phosphorylation and its subsequent proteolytic processing, thereby abrogating its ability to negatively regulate the hedgehog pathway. Our findings show how Nestin drives hedgehog pathway-driven cancers and uncover in Gli3 a therapeutic target to treat these malignancies. Nestin+ and Nestin- GNPs (granule neuron precursors) were purified from Nestin-CFP/Math1-Cre/Ptch1-loxp cerebella at postnatal day 4 by FACs, and total RNA from these two cell populations were extracted, and then labeled and hybridized to Affymetrix Mouse Genome 430 2.0 arrays.
Project description:The intermediate filament protein Nestin serves as a biomarker for stem cells and has been used to identify subsets of cancer stem-like cells. However, the mechanistic contributions of Nestin to cancer pathogenesis are not understood. Here we report that Nestin binds the hedgehog pathway transcription factor Gli3 to mediate the development of medulloblastomas of the hedgehog subtype. In a mouse model system, Nestin levels increased progressively during medulloblastoma formation resulting in enhanced tumor growth. Conversely, loss of Nestin dramatically inhibited proliferation and promoted differentiation. Mechanistic investigations revealed that the tumor-promoting effects of Nestin were mediated by binding to Gli3, a zinc finger transcription factor that negatively regulates hedgehog signaling. Nestin binding to Gli3 blocked Gli3 phosphorylation and its subsequent proteolytic processing, thereby abrogating its ability to negatively regulate the hedgehog pathway. Our findings show how Nestin drives hedgehog pathway-driven cancers and uncover in Gli3 a therapeutic target to treat these malignancies.
Project description:human corneal epithelial cells were isolated from healthy human donor eyes. Cells were cultured with irradiated 3T3 (i3T3) murine fibroblast feeder cells, irradiated human corneal fibroblasts (iHFL) or without feeder layer
Project description:The pluripotency maintenance of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) cultured in vitro requires the suitable microenvironment, which is commonly provided by the feeder layer. However, the preparation of feeder layer is time consuming and labor exhaustive. More importantly, the feeder cells treated with mitomycin or gamma-ray irradiation brings heterologous contamination to stem cells. The feeder-free PSC cultures are associated with high costs because of the requirement for additional supplements and special media. In this study, we characterize the pluripotency and metabolic status of bovine ESCs-F7 (classic bESCs lines, abbreviated as F7), which were cultured on methanol fixed mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MT-MEFs) or mitomycin C treated MEFs (1M-MEFs). MT-MEFs could be reused several times and were highly resistant to digestive enzymes. The relative expression levels of pluripotent markers were different between F7 cultured on MT-MEFs (marked as MT-F7) and those cultured on the 1M-MEFs (1M-F7). The long-term cultured MT-F7 cells formed embryoid bodies in vitro, showing the ability to differentiate into endodermal, ectodermal, and mesodermal germ layers like 1M-F7. RNA-sequencing analysis showed that the replacement of the feeder layer from 1M-MEFs to MT-MEFs lead to a novel steady transition of the F7, which included alteration of the expression patterns of genes that regulate pluripotency and metabolism. Further, the long-term cultured bovine expanded pluripotent stem cells (bEPSCs) on MT-MEFs (MT-bEPSCs) formed classical colonies, maintained pluripotency, and demonstrated elevated level of metabolic activity. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that methanol-fixed MEFs were efficient feeder layer that maintain the unique pluripotency and the distinctive metabolic characteristics of the bPSCs cultured in vitro.
Project description:Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have been generated from various somatic cells under feeder-layer conditions. These feeder-derived iPSCs generated in different labs exhibit greater variability than between different traditional embryo derived hESC lines. For that reason, it is important to develop a standard and defined system for deriving autologous patient stem cells. We have generated iPSCs under feeder-free conditions using Matrigel coated vessels in chemically defined medium, mTeSR1. These feeder-free derived iPSCs are in many ways similar to feeder-derived iPSCs and also to hESCs, with respect to their pluripotent gene expression (OCT4, NANOG, SOX2), protein expression (OCT4, NANOG, SSEA4, TRA160) and differentiation capabilities. We conducted a whole genomic transcript analysis using Affymetrix Human Gene 1.0 ST arrays to elucidate the important differences between traditional feeder-derived iPSCs and feeder-free derived iPSCs. We reveal that feeder-free iPSCs have over-represented terms belonging to DNA replication and cell cycle genes which are lacking in feeder-derived iPSCs. Feeder-free iPSCs are in many aspects more similar to hESCs including; apoptosis, chromatin modification enzymes and mitochondrial energy metabolism. We have also identified potential biomarkers for fully reprogrammed iPSCs (FRZB) and partially reprogrammed iPSCs (POTEG, MX2) based on their expression trends across all cell types. In conclusion, feeder-free derived iPSCs is transcriptomically more similar to hESCs than feeder derived iPSCs, in many biological functions.