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Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great promise for regenerative medicine. For the application of iPSCs to forms of autologous cell therapy, suitable animal models are required. Among species that could potentially be used for this purpose, nonhuman primates are particularly important, and among these the marmoset offers significant advantages. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the application of iPSC technology to this species, here we derived lines of marmoset iPSCs. Using retroviral transduction with human Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc, we derived clones that fulfil critical criteria for successful reprogramming: they exhibit typical iPSC morphology; they are alkaline phosphatase positive; they express high levels of NANOG, OCT4 and SOX2 mRNAs, while the corresponding vector genes are silenced; they are immunoreactive for Oct4, TRA-1-81 and SSEA-4; and when implanted into immunodeficient mice they produce teratomas that have derivatives of all three germ layers (endoderm, α-fetoprotein; ectoderm, βIII-tubulin; mesoderm, smooth muscle actin). Starting with a population of 4 × 105 newborn marmoset skin fibroblasts, we obtained ∼100 colonies with iPSC-like morphology. Of these, 30 were expanded sufficiently to be cryopreserved, and of those 8 were characterized in more detail. These experiments provide proof of principle that iPSC technology can be adapted for use in the marmoset, as a future model of autologous cell therapy.

Normal cells require adhesion to extracellular matrix for survival. Cell detachment causes a drastic increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) that promotes anoikis. In the present study, we observed that upon detachment from matrix, human mammary epithelial cells strongly upregulate manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD, or SOD2), a principal mitochondrial antioxidant enzyme that detoxifies ROS through dismutation of superoxide. Induction of MnSOD by cell detachment is dependent on the NFκB transcription factor. Detachment of mammary epithelial cells potently increases mitochondrial superoxide levels, which are further elevated by depletion of MnSOD in suspended cells. Consequently, cells depleted of MnSOD are hypersensitive to matrix detachment and exhibit increased anoikis. These results suggest that detachment-induced MnSOD counters mitochondrial superoxide accumulation and confers anoikis resistance. Taken together with our previous finding that detached cells evade excessive ROS production by attenuating oxidative metabolism of glucose, we conclude that mammary epithelial cells coordinate their responses to detachment through increasing MnSOD and decreasing ROS generation from mitochondrial glucose oxidation, thereby mitigating anoikis. Anoikis is a barrier to tumor metastasis. Indeed, MnSOD expression is elevated in human breast cancer metastases compared with primary tumors. Expression of MnSOD correlates with histologic tumor grades in human cancer and contributes to cancer cell's resistance to anoikis. Our study suggests that inhibition of ROS detoxification coupled with stimulation of glucose oxidative metabolism may be an efficient strategy to enhance anoikis and block metastasis.

BackgroundDNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that is essential for epigenetic gene regulation in development and disease. To date, the genome-wide DNA methylation maps of many organisms have been reported, but the methylation pattern of cattle remains unknown.ResultsWe showed the genome-wide DNA methylation map in placental tissues using methylated DNA immunoprecipitation combined with high-throughput sequencing (MeDIP-seq). In cattle, the methylation levels in the gene body are relatively high, whereas the promoter remains hypomethylated. We obtained thousands of highly methylated regions (HMRs), methylated CpG islands, and methylated genes from bovine placenta. DNA methylation levels around the transcription start sites of genes are negatively correlated with the gene expression level. However, the relationship between gene-body DNA methylation and gene expression is non-monotonic. Moderately expressed genes generally have the highest levels of gene-body DNA methylation, whereas the highly, and lowly expressed genes, as well as silent genes, show moderate DNA methylation levels. Genes with the highest expression show the lowest DNA methylation levels.ConclusionsWe have generated the genome-wide mapping of DNA methylation in cattle for the first time, and our results can be used for future studies on epigenetic gene regulation in cattle. This study contributes to the knowledge on epigenetics in cattle.

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