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

doi:10.1073/pnas.0908450106

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

^aDepartment of Radiology,
^bDivision of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery,
^cDepartment of Pathology,
^dDepartment of Cardiothoracic Surgery,
^eCardiovascular Institute of Medicine,
^fInstitute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, and
^gDepartment of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305

Communicated by Mark M. Davis, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, July 31, 2009 (received for review April 2, 2009)

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.

Footnotes

¹To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: joewu{at}stanford.edu or longaker{at}stanford.edu
Author contributions: N.S., N.J.P., D.M.G., R.C.R., M.T.L., and J.C.W. designed research; N.S., N.J.P., D.M.G., K.D.W., A.L., F.J., S.H., and A.M.C. performed research; R.C.R., M.T.L., and J.C.W. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; N.S., N.J.P., K.D.W., A.L., F.J., S.H., A.M.C., and J.C.W. analyzed data; and N.S., K.D.W., M.T.L., and J.C.W. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0908450106/DCSupplemental.