Induction of tendon/ligament progenitor cells from human iPSCs

2017 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K15664
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: ALEV CANTAS 京都大学, iPS細胞研究所, 特定拠点助教 (30726477)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 池谷 真 京都大学, iPS細胞研究所, 准教授 (20442923)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: tendon progenitor cells / iPSCs / mesoderm differentiation / syndetome

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

We succeeded to establish an efficient and reproducible step-wise in vitro induction protocol of human tendon/ligament progenitor cells (TLPCs) from human iPSCs. To this end we tried to mimic the step-wise emergence of TLPCs during embryonic development. We utilised hereby a step-wise induction protocol of human pre-somitic and somitic mesoderm from iPSCs, followed by the in vitro induction and maturation of human syndetome cells expressing the TLPC-specific transcription factors scleraxis (SCX) and mohawk (MKX). At the end of our fully-defined feeder-free iPSC-based in vitro protocol (of three weeks) enthesis-like TLPCs were derived in vitro. These cells have the potential to be used for disease modeling and/or cellular replacement therapy.