Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from the Pig Somatic Cells

We have derived induced porcine pluripotent stem cells (iPPSCs) from porcine fetal fibroblasts by lentiviral transduction of four human (h) reprogramming genes, hOCT4, hSOX2, hKLF4 and hc-MYC , the same combination of factors used for deriving induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines in both mouse and human. The obtained iPPSC lines resemble human embryonic stem cells (ESC) in their gross morphology and dependence on FGF2, on the other hand, the iPPSCs share characteristics like growth rate and cell surface markers with mESC . Additionally, the iPPSCs express pluripotency- associated genes similar to mouse and human iPSCs as well as ESC, along with the pig epiblast cells. Some of the iPPSC lines retained a stable karyotype and phenotype even in culture for a prolonged period of time (passage 39). The iPPSCs can be induced to differentiate along lineages representative of the three embryonic germ layers both in vitro and in vivo demonstrating the pluripotency of these cells.

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Ezashi T, Telugu BP, Alexenko AP, Sachdev S, Sinha S, Roberts RM