Reprogramming of mouse embryonic fibroblasts to mouse hematopoietic progenitor cells

Abstract

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) show great potential for clinical applications, although obtaining matched HSCs for specific applications and efficiently expanding HSCs in vitro are difficult. Recently, reprogramming of somatic cells into hematopoietic lineage has been reported by introduction of several transcription factors. Transduction of hematopoietic transcription factors induced conversion of fibroblast to hematopoietic progenitors. In this study, mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) were reprogrammed into hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) in long-term HSC culture medium by co-infecting the MEFs with pMXs-Oct4/Sox2/Klf4/c-Myc/Lmo2/c-Fos/c-Myb (pMXs-7TF MEFs). Furthermore, the expanded pMXs-7TF-MEFs could be differentiated into lymphoid and myeloid lineages performing specialized functions using specific cytokines in vitro. The in vivo transplantation of these pMXs-7TF-MEFs lethally irradiated mice resulted in the complete reconstitution of the hematopoietic system by these pMXs-7TF-MEFs. Taken together, our results demonstrated that reprogrammed cells