Excision of viral reprogramming cassettes by Cre protein transduction enables rapid, robust and efficient derivation of transgene-free human induced pluripotent stem cells.
Kadari, Asifiqbal, et al.
Stem Cell Res Ther, 5: 47 (2014)
2014
Show Abstract
Integrating viruses represent robust tools for cellular reprogramming, however, the presence of viral transgenes in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is deleterious as it holds the risk of insertional mutagenesis leading to malignant transformation. Here, we combine the robustness of lentiviral reprogramming with the efficacy of Cre recombinase protein transduction to derive iPSCs devoid of transgenes. By genome-wide analysis and targeted differentiation towards the cardiomyocyte lineage, we show that transgene-free iPSCs are superior to iPSCs before Cre transduction. Our study provides a simple, rapid and robust protocol for the generation of clinical-grade iPSCs suitable for disease modeling, tissue engineering and cell replacement therapies. | 24713299
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