Feeder-free derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells from adult human adipose stem cells

TLDR

Reprogramming somatic cells to pluripotency via transcription factors has been mainly done with skin fibroblasts, which require weeks of expansion, whereas adult human adipose stem cells can be isolated quickly in large numbers and are an ideal autologous source. We demonstrate that feeder‑free induced pluripotent stem cells can be generated directly from freshly isolated adult human adipose stem cells, providing a rapid, autologous source without feeder‑cell variability.

Abstract

Ectopic expression of transcription factors can reprogram somatic cells to a pluripotent state. However, most of the studies used skin fibroblasts as the starting population for reprogramming, which usually take weeks for expansion from a single biopsy. We show here that induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be generated from adult human adipose stem cells (hASCs) freshly isolated from patients. Furthermore, iPS cells can be readily derived from adult hASCs in a feeder-free condition, thereby eliminating potential variability caused by using feeder cells. hASCs can be safely and readily isolated from adult humans in large quantities without extended time for expansion, are easy to maintain in culture, and therefore represent an ideal autologous source of cells for generating individual-specific iPS cells.