Reprogramming into induced totipotent stem cells by maternal factors

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K18546
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Developmental biology
• Research Institution: Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Yukimasa Takeda 京都府立医科大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (40735552)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: リプログラミング / 母性効果因子 / 分化全能性 / 人工多能性幹細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to reprogram mouse embryonic fibroblasts into totipotent stem cells. Each lentivirus to express 23 maternal effect genes was infected in MEFs together with Yamanaka’s 4 factors to generate iPS cells with a higher potency. The reprogramming efficiency was clearly enhanced by some of them. Moreover, some of the iPS cells significantly more expressed a series of genes specific to embryos at the 2 cell-stage, and the cell population of the cells expressing the genes was increased. To test totipotency, either iPS cells or ES cells that were generated by using maternal effect genes from CAG-EGFP transgenic mice were combined with wild-type mouse embryos at the 8 cell-stage. The GFP fluorescence was carefully observed in inner cell mass and trophectoderm of the blastocysts. The results implied that a few cells might be contributed to the trophectoderm and that some of the maternal effect genes might play an important role for the acquisition of totipotency.

Free Research Field

再生医療