Rajanahalli Pavan, Meyer Kyle, Zhu Lin, Wagner Brad D, Robinson Michael L, King David A, Hong Yiling
Department of Biology, and Center for Tissue Regeneration and Engineering, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio 45469, USA.
Front Biosci (Elite Ed). 2012 Jan 1;4(5):1813-22. doi: 10.2741/e502.
The reprogramming of fibroblasts to pluripotent stem cells and the direct conversion of fibroblasts to functional neurons has been successfully manipulated by ectopic expression of defined factors. We demonstrate that mouse fibroblasts can be converted into sphere cells by detaching the fibroblast cells by protease and then using the AlbuMAX I-containing culture medium without genetic alteration. AlbuMAX I is a lipid-rich albumin. Albumin-associated lipids arachidonic acid (AA) and pluronic F-68 were responsible for this effect. The converted colonies were positive for both alkaline phosphatase and surface specific embryonic antigen-1 (SSEA-1) staining. Global gene expression analysis indicated that the sphere cells were in an intermediate state compared with mES cells and MEF cells. The sphere cells were able to differentiate into tissues representing all three embryonic germ layers following retinoic acid treatment, and differentiated into smooth muscle cells following treatment with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The study presented a potential novel approach to transdifferentiate mouse fibroblast cells into other cell lineages mediated by AlbuMAX I-containing culture medium.
