Viable Mice Produced from 3-factor Induced Pluripoent Stem (iPS) Cells through Tetraploid Complementation

Ectopic expression of four transcription factors including Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc in differentiated fibroblast cells could reset the cell fate of fibroblast cells to pluripotent state. Subsequently, fully pluripotency of these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has been demonstrated as viable mice could be generated autonomously from iPS cells through tetraploid blastocyst complementation. Moreover, the generation of human and patient-specific iPS cells have raised the possibility of utilizing iPS cells clinically. However, the utilization of c-Myc in iPS cells induction greatly increased the incidence of tumorigenecity in the iPS-chimeric mice and also might hinder the clinical application of human iPS cells in the future. Fortunately, c-Myc has been recently found dispensable for iPS induction even though the iPS induction efficiency is greatly reduced in the absence of c-Myc. However, it remains unknown if these three factors-induced iPS cells are fully pluripotent. In the present study, we have successfully demonstrated that 3-factor iPS cells could also be fully pluripotent as viable mice could be generated from 3-factor iPS cells autonomously via tetraploid complementation and moreover, our data indicated that the pluripotency regulatory mechanism in 3-factor iPS cells might be distinct from 4-factor iPS cells.

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Kang L, Wu T, Tao Y, Yuan Y, He J, Zhang Y, Luo T, Kou Z, Gao S