Reprogramming Of Rat Embryonic Fibroblasts By Transcription Factor Expression

Ectopic transcription factor expression mediated iPS technology hold great promise for patient-specific regenerative therapy. Establishment of mouse and human iPS cells set up the foundation for clinical application. Investigation into reprogramming mechanism have made great achievement and actively advanced the profound understanding of reprogramming process. However, iPS cells of other species are largely underinvestigated largely due to the scarcity of counterparts of embryonic stem cells. In the light of Rat is critical animal model for most disease, rat somatic cells, embryonic fibroblasts, were reprogrammed in a view to establish rat iPS cells as an important in vitro model for disease simulation and drug selection. This research utilize retrovirus-mediated transcription factor transgene expression to reprogram rat embryonic fibroblast with the following results:1. Rat embryonic fibroblasts can be derived by culturing trypsinized rat embryonic tissue.2. By reprogramming with oct4, sox2, klf4 and c-myc, rat embryonic fibroblast can be converted to neural stem cell-like cells, which are unipotent and only differentiate into neurons.3. By reprogramming with Oct4,Klf4 and c-myc, rat embryonic fibroblast can be converted into rat ES-like cells characteristic of pluripotency gene expression and differentiation into cells of different germ layer.