QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online 1 September 2009
doi: 10.1242/jcs.054783

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplementary Material All Versions of this Article: jcs.054783v1 122/19/3502    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Google Scholar Articles by Utikal, J. Articles by Hochedlinger, K. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Utikal, J. Articles by Hochedlinger, K. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Sox2 is dispensable for the reprogramming of melanocytes and melanoma cells into induced pluripotent stem cells

¹ Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Regenerative Medicine, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA
² Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA
³ Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology, University Medical Center Mannheim, Ruprecht-Karl-University of Heidelberg, Theodor-Kutzer-Ufer 1-3, 68135 Mannheim, Germany
⁴ Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, 7 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

^* Author for correspondence (khochedlinger{at}helix.mgh.harvard.edu)

Accepted 16 July 2009

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have been derived at low frequencies from different cell types through ectopic expression of the transcription factors Oct4 and Sox2, combined with either Klf4 and c-Myc or Lin28 and Nanog. In order to generate iPSCs more effectively, it will be crucial to identify somatic cells that are easily accessible and possibly require fewer factors for conversion into iPSCs. Here, we show that both human and mouse melanocytes give rise to iPSCs at higher efficiencies than fibroblasts. Moreover, we demonstrate that a mouse malignant melanoma cell line, which has previously been reprogrammed into embryonic stem cells by nuclear transfer, remains equally amenable to reprogramming into iPSCs by these transcription factors. In contrast to skin fibroblasts, melanocytes and melanoma cells did not require ectopic Sox2 expression for conversion into iPSCs. iPSC lines from melanocytic cells expressed pluripotency markers, formed teratomas and contributed to viable chimeric mice with germ line transmission. Our results identify skin melanocytes as an alternative source for deriving patient-specific iPSCs at increased efficiency and with fewer genetic elements. In addition, our results suggest that cancer cells remain susceptible to transcription factor-mediated reprogramming, which should facilitate the study of epigenetic changes in human cancer.

Key words: Reprogramming, iPS cell, Melanocyte, Sox2

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

Related articles in JCS:

Reprogramming melanocytes

JCS 2009 122: 1905. [Full Text]  

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Utikal, N. Maherali, W. Kulalert, and K. Hochedlinger Sox2 is dispensable for the reprogramming of melanocytes and melanoma cells into induced pluripotent stem cells Development, October 15, 2009; 136(20): e1 - e1. [Full Text]