Reprogramming of skin fibroblasts and cord cells by viral plasmids and transposons in the production of equine iPS

Author(s)

Midyan Daroz Guastali

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Botucatu. 2017-01-05.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências. Botucatu
• Defense date: 2016-12-01
• Advisor: Fernanda da Cruz Landim

Abstract

Researches on the biology of stem cells cover a broad spectrum of phenomena, ranging from tissue and cellular level, to their use in cell therapy. This growing attention suggests that is necessary to study basic concepts of stem cells organization in order to fully understand the functional differentiation processes. Thus, the cell reprogramming through gene manipulation provides grants to better understand the processes of renewal and differentiation which are the essential characteristics of stem cells. Obtaining these cells in veterinary medicine aims to validate various household experimental models, such as horses, on the search for new drugs and alternative therapies for rehabilitation. However, a number of studies is still necessary for such applications to be feasible, since the fundamental mechanisms of techniques employed are not fully elucidated yet. Although cell reprogramming using viral plasmid has been reported with success in several animal species, other techniques may also be employed, such use transposons, this is, DNAs sequences capable of moving from one region to another in the cell genome. The unawereness of what the best cell type to be used, and nor what is the most efficient reprogramming methodology. It is known that the cord has rich reserves mesenchymal stem cells, which are multipotent and can improve the efficiency of obtaining the induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS) compared to the use of fibroblast, inefficient to be reprogrammed. The aim of this study was to obtain iPS through viral transfection and non-viral adult fibroblasts and equine cord cells, aiming to observe which transfection and cell type is more efficient for cell reprogramming. Both cell types was infected with viral vectors and transposons containing the genes OCT-4, SOX-2, c-MYC, and KLF-4; transformed cells were evaluated for morphology, immunocytochemistry and flow cytometry with the typical pluripotent stem cells markers and also for the changes caused in the gene expression profile of the cells by the PCR real time method; finally reprogrammed cells were induced to reprogram to differentiate into three germ layers tissues. The results showed that fibroblasts and cord cells subjected to viral infection presented pluripotent cell characteristics such as morphology, positive staining for antibodies and specific gene expression, immunocytochemistry of the formed embryoid bodies also showed labeling for ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm. Despite the time to start colonies formation is very similar (7 days for fibroblasts and 6 days for cord cells), the expansion of reprogrammed fibroblasts colonies was slow, with the 1st performed 30 days post-infection in comparison with umbilical cord colonies, in which the 1st pass on cord colonies after 15 days. No effective reprogramming of transposon infections was observed in either cell type. It is concluded that the method of viral vector infection in umbilical cord cells is more efficient than in fibroblasts and that in both cell types, the mechanism of transposons did not result in reprogrammed cells. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/18735-4 - REPROGRAMMING OF SKIN FIBROBLAST AND UMBILICAL CORD CELLS THROUGH VIRAL PLASMIDS AND TRANSPOSONS IN THE EQUINE IPS PRODUCTION.
• Grantee: Mídyan Daroz Guastali
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate