Reprogramming Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma to Pluripotency

Summary

The present protocol describes the reprogramming of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and normal pancreatic ductal epithelial cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). We provide an optimized and detailed, step-by-step procedure, from preparing lentivirus to establishing stable iPSC lines.

Abstract

The generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) using transcription factors has been achieved from almost any differentiated cell type and has proved highly valuable for research and clinical applications. Interestingly, iPSC reprogramming of cancer cells, such as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), has been shown to revert the invasive PDAC phenotype and override the cancer epigenome. The differentiation of PDAC-derived iPSCs can recapitulate PDAC progression from its early pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) precursor, revealing the molecular and cellular changes that occur early during PDAC progression. Therefore, PDAC-derived iPSCs can be used to model the earliest stages of PDAC for the discovery of early-detection diagnostic markers. This is particularly important for PDAC patients, who are typically diagnosed at the late metastatic stages due to a lack of reliable biomarkers for the earlier PanIN stages. However, reprogramming cancer cell lines, including PDAC, into pluripotency remains challenging, labor-intensive, and highly variable between different lines. Here, we describe a more consistent protocol for generating iPSCs from various human PDAC cell lines using bicistronic lentiviral vectors. The resulting iPSC lines are stable, showing no dependence on the exogenous expression of reprogramming factors or inducible drugs. Overall, this protocol facilitates the generation of a wide range of PDAC-derived iPSCs, which is essential for discovering early biomarkers that are more specific and representative of PDAC cases.

Introduction

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most fatal malignancies, and early diagnosis remains challenging due to the asymptomatic nature of the disease. The majority of PDAC patients are diagnosed at the advanced metastatic stage when very limited treatment options are available^1,2. This is mainly due to the lack of reliable biomarkers for the earlier stages, such as those that could be conveniently detected as proteins released into the bloodstream.

PDAC can disseminate very early during its progression, and a better prognosis has been linked to early cancer detection ....

Protocol

All experimental protocols were approved by the OHSU Institutional Review Board. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. All animal works for PDX tumors were performed with the OHSU Institutional Animal Use and Care Committee (IACUC) approval. This protocol was tested in Primary PDAC cells from patient-derived xenograft (PDX), BxPc3 cell line exhibiting epithelial morphology that was isolated from the pancreas tissue of a 61-year-old female patient with adenocarcinoma, the H6C.......

Discussion

To facilitate the use of iPSC reprogramming for studying cancer progression, a robust protocol has been established for reprogramming pancreatic cancer cells. Reprogramming cancer cells into pluripotency has proven to be very challenging thus far, as only a few studies have successfully generated iPSCs from cancer cells^{32,36,37,38,39,}

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
2-Mercaptoethanol (50 mM)	Thermo Fisher	31350010
Alexa Fluor 488 anti- human TRA-1-60-R	BioLegend	330613
Bovine Pituitary Extract (BPE)	Thermo Fisher	13028014
BxPc3	ATCC	CRL-1687
Cholera Toxin from Vibrio cholerae	Merck	C8052-1MG
Collagen, Type I solution from rat tail	Merck	C3867
Completed Defined K-SFM	Thermo Fisher	10744-019
Corning Costar TC-Treated Multiple Well Plates	Merck	CLS3516
Corning syringe filters	Merck	CLS431231
Corning tissue-culture treated culture dishes	Merck	CLS430599
Day Impex Virkon Disinfectant Virucidal Tablets	Thermo Fisher	12328667
Dulbecco′s Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS)	Merck	D8537
Fetal Calf Serum (FCS)	Thermo Fisher	10270-106
Fugene HD Transfection Reagent	Promega	E2312
Gelatin solution, Type B, 2% in H2O	Merck	G1393-100ML
Glasgow Minimum Essential Media (GMEM)	Merck	G5154
Human EGF Recombinant Protein	Thermo Fisher	PHG0311
Human FGF-basic (FGF-2/bFGF) (154 aa) Recombinant Protein, PeproTech	Thermo Fisher	100-18B
Human Pancreatic Duct Epithelial Cell Line (H6c7)	Kerafast	ECA001-FP
iMEF feeder cells	iXcells Biotechnologies	10MU-001-1V
Keratinocyte Serum Free Media (KSFM)	Thermo Fisher	17005-042
KnockOut DMEM	Thermo Fisher	10829018
KnockOut serum Replacement	Thermo Fisher	10828028
L-Glutamine (200 mM)	Thermo Fisher	25030-024
MEM Non-Essential Amino Acids Solution (100x)	Thermo Fisher	11140050
Millex-HP 0.45 μM syringe Filter Unit (Sterile)	Merck	SLHP033RS
Opti-MEM Reduced Serum Medium	Thermo Fisher	31985062
pMDG	AddGene	187440
Polybrene (Hexadimethrine bromide)	Merck	H9268-5G
pSIN4-CMV-K2M	AddGene	21164
pSIN4-EF2-O2S	AddGene	21162
psPAX2	AddGene	12260
pWPT-GFP	AddGene	12255
RPMI 1640 Medium (ATCC modification)	Thermo Fisher	A1049101
Sodym Pyruvate	Thermo Fisher	11360-039
Sterile Syringes for Single Use (60 mL)	Thermo Fisher	15899152
TrypLE Express Enzyme (1x), phenol red	Thermo Fisher	12605036
UltraPure 0.5M EDTA, pH 8.0	Thermo Fisher	15575020
Y-27632 (Dihydrochloride)	STEMCELL Technologies	72304