Advanced Feeder-Free Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Directly From Blood Cells

Abstract

© AlphaMed Press. Generation of validated human induced pluri potent stem cells (iPSCs) for biobanking is essential for exploring the full potential of iPSCs in disease modeling and drug discovery. Peripheral blood mono-nuclear cells (PBMCs) are attractive targets for reprogramming, because blood is collected by a routine clinical procedure and is a commonly stored material in biobanks. Generation of iPSCs from blood cells has previously been reported using integrative retroviruses, episomal Sendai viruses, and DNAplasmids.However,mostofthepublishedprotocolsrequireexpansionand/oractivationofaspe-cific cell population from PBMCs. We have recently collected a PBMC cohort from the Finnish population containing more than 2,000 subjects. Here we report efficient generation of iPSCs directly from PBMCs in feeder-free conditions in approximately 2 weeks. The produced iPSC clones are plu-ri potent and transgene-free. Together, these properties make this novel method a powerful tool for large-scale reprogramming of PBMCs and for iPSC biobanking.