Transplantation of human neuro-epithelial-like stem cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells improves neurological function in rats with experimental intracerebral hemorrhage.

Specific targeted therapy for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), which has high disability and case-fatality rate, is currently not available. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generated from somatic cells of ICH patients have therapeutic potential for individualized cerebral protection. While, whether ICH patient-originated iPSCs could differentiate into neuro-epithelial-like stem (NES) cells and whether such NES cells could improve functional recovery in the hemorrhage-injured brain are unclear. Here, we showed that fibroblasts from an ICH patient can be efficiently reprogrammed to iPSCs by lentiviral vectors carrying defined transcription factors (OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, and c-MYC). These iPSCs have the typical morphology, surface antigens, capability of self-renewal and differentiating into cell types of all three embryonic germ layers that are similar to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Using defined serum-free neural differentiation medium, we induced the iPSCs differentiate into NES cells. Subsequently, the NES cells from ICH patient-originated iPSCs were transplanted into the perihematoma of rats with experimental ICH injury. Intriguingly, recovery of neurological dysfunction in experimental ICH rats was observed post-NES cells graftage. Transplanted NES cells migrated to the surrounding area of hematoma, survived and differentiated into neuron-like cells. Our study demonstrates that the transplantation of human iPS-originated NES cells is an effective approach of treating ICH injury and the improvement of neural function is partially due to neuronal replacement and regeneration.