PI3K/AKT Signaling Pathway Is Essential for Survival of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

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Abstract

Apoptosis is a highly conserved biochemical mechanism which is tightly controlled in cells. It contributes to maintenance of tissue homeostasis and normally eliminates highly proliferative cells with malignant properties. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have recently been described with significant functional and morphological similarities to embryonic stem cells. Human iPSCs are of great hope for regenerative medicine due to their broad potential to differentiate into specialized cell types in culture. They may be useful for exploring disease mechanisms and may provide the basis for future cell-based replacement therapies. However, there is only poor insight into iPSCs cell signaling as the regulation of apoptosis. In this study, we focused our attention on the apoptotic response of Alzheimer fibroblast-derived iPSCs and two other Alzheimer free iPSCs to five biologically relevant kinase inhibitors as well as to the death ligand TRAIL. To our knowledge, we are the first to report that the relatively high basal apoptotic rate of iPSCs is strongly suppressed by the pancaspase inhibitor QVD-Oph, thus underlining the dependency on proapoptotic caspase cascades. Furthermore, wortmannin, an inhibitor of phosphoinositid-3 kinase / Akt signaling (PI3K-AKT), dramatically and rapidly induced apoptosis in iPSCs. In contrast, parental fibroblasts as well as iPSC-derived neuronal cells were not responsive. The resulting condensation and fragmentation of DNA and decrease of the membrane potential are typical features of apoptosis. Comparable effects were observed with an AKT inhibitor (MK-2206). Wortmannin resulted in disappearance of phosphorylated AKT and activation of the main effector caspase-3 in iPSCs. These results clearly demonstrate for the first time that PI3K-AKT represents a highly essential survival signaling pathway in iPSCs. The findings provide improved understanding on the underlying mechanisms of apoptosis regulation in iPSCs.

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Rapid single-step induction of functional neurons from human pluripotent stem cells.

Yingsha Zhang, Changhui Pak, Yan Han … (2013)

Available methods for differentiating human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent cells (iPSCs) into neurons are often cumbersome, slow, and variable. Alternatively, human fibroblasts can be directly converted into induced neuronal (iN) cells. However, with present techniques conversion is inefficient, synapse formation is limited, and only small amounts of neurons can be generated. Here, we show that human ESCs and iPSCs can be converted into functional iN cells with nearly 100% yield and purity in less than 2 weeks by forced expression of a single transcription factor. The resulting ES-iN or iPS-iN cells exhibit quantitatively reproducible properties independent of the cell line of origin, form mature pre- and postsynaptic specializations, and integrate into existing synaptic networks when transplanted into mouse brain. As illustrated by selected examples, our approach enables large-scale studies of human neurons for questions such as analyses of human diseases, examination of human-specific genes, and drug screening. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Induced pluripotent stem cells generated without viral integration.

Matthias Stadtfeld, Masaki Nagaya, Jochen Utikal … (2008)

Pluripotent stem cells have been generated from mouse and human somatic cells by viral expression of the transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. A major limitation of this technology is the use of potentially harmful genome-integrating viruses. We generated mouse induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from fibroblasts and liver cells by using nonintegrating adenoviruses transiently expressing Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. These adenoviral iPS (adeno-iPS) cells show DNA demethylation characteristic of reprogrammed cells, express endogenous pluripotency genes, form teratomas, and contribute to multiple tissues, including the germ line, in chimeric mice. Our results provide strong evidence that insertional mutagenesis is not required for in vitro reprogramming. Adenoviral reprogramming may provide an improved method for generating and studying patient-specific stem cells and for comparing embryonic stem cells and iPS cells.