Direct Lineage Reprogramming of Adult Mouse Fibroblast to Erythroid Progenitors

Summary

Here we present our protocol for producing induced erythroid progenitors (iEPs) from mouse adult fibroblasts using transcription factor-driven direct lineage reprogramming (DLR).

Abstract

Erythroid cell commitment and differentiation proceed through activation of a lineage-restricted transcriptional network orchestrated by a group of cell fate determining and maturing factors. We previously set out to define the minimal set of factors necessary for instructing red blood cell development using direct lineage reprogramming of fibroblasts into induced erythroid progenitors/precursors (iEPs). We showed that overexpression of Gata1, Tal1, Lmo2, and c-Myc (GTLM) can rapidly convert murine and human fibroblasts directly to iEPs that resemble bona fide erythroid cells in terms of morphology, phenotype, and gene expression. We intend that iEPs will provide an invaluable tool to study erythropoiesis and cell fate regulation. Here we describe the stepwise process of converting murine tail tip fibroblasts into iEPs via transcription factor-driven direct lineage reprogramming (DLR). In this example, we perform the reprogramming in fibroblasts from erythroid lineage-tracing mice that express the yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) under the control of the erythropoietin receptor gene (EpoR) promoter, enabling visualization of erythroid cell fate induction upon reprogramming. Following this protocol, fibroblasts can be reprogrammed into iEPs within five to eight days.

While improvements can still be made to the process, we show that GTLM-mediated reprogramming is a rapid and direct process, yielding cells with properties of bona fide erythroid progenitor and precursor cells.

Introduction

Red blood cells (RBCs) are essential in all vertebrates and make up 84% of all cells of human bodies¹. From embryonic to adult life, our health is highly dependent on exact regulation of RBC homeostasis. The ongoing production of mature RBCs throughout development into adulthood is known as erythropoiesis. A major challenge in erythropoiesis research is to define the master regulators that orchestrate RBC development and the switch between primitive and definitive erythropoiesis. Direct lineage reprogramming of erythroid progenitors presents an opportunity to further understand erythroid development in vivo.

Protocol

1. Establishment and Maintenance of Primary Mouse Tail Tip Fibroblast Cultures

1. Prepare gelatin-coated dishes (recommend a 10 cm dish for one tail) by covering the surface with 0.1% gelatin and incubating the dishes for approximately 20 min at 37 °C. Aspirate the gelatin solution from the dish and allow it to dry for at least 2 h.
2. Euthanize the mice by cervical dislocation. Remove the tail with scissors, cutting at the base of the tail. Put the tail in Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline (D.......

Discussion

Overexpression of a four-factor cocktail, GATA1, TAL1, LMO2, and c-MYC (GTLM), is sufficient to reprogram murine and human fibroblasts directly to iEPs¹⁰. The reprogrammed erythroid cells greatly resembled bona fide erythroid progenitors in terms of morphology, phenotype, gene expression, and colony-forming ability. This finding corroborates the rationale of using direct .......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
DMEM without sodium pyruvate	GE Life Sciences	SH30022.01	Culturing media for PhGP cells
DMEM with sodium pyruvate	GE Life Sciences	SH30243.01	Culturing media for tail tip fibroblasts
StemSpan Serum Free Expansion Media (SFEM)	Stem Cell Technologies	9650	Reprogramming media
Fetal Bovine Serum HyClone	GE Life Sciences	SH30071.03HI	Growth factor
Penicillin/Streptomycin HyClone (100x)	Ge Life Sciences	SV30010	Antiboiotic
Non-Essential Amino Acids (100x)	Thermo Fisher	11140050	SNL media is suppplemented with this
Trypsin HyClone (1x)	GE Life Sciences	SH30042.01	Cell dissociation agent
Murine Stem Cell Factor (mSCF)	Peprotech	250-03	Added to reprogramming media
Recombinant Murine Il-3	Peprotech	213-13	Added to reprogramming media
human recombinant erythropoietin (hrEPO)	Peprotech	100-64	Added to reprogramming media
Dexamethasone	Sigma	50-02-2	Added to reprogramming media
Gelatin from porcine skin	Sigma	9000-70-8	Dissovled in dH2O and used for coating plates. Ensure sterility before use.
Blasticidin S hydrochloride	Sigma	3/9/3513	Selection antibiotic. Affects both pro- and eukaryotic cells
Dulbecco's Phosphate Buffered Saline (DPBS)	Ge Life Sciences	SH30850.03	Used for washing steps
Polybrene	Merck	TR-1003-G	Infection / Transfection  Reagent
FuGENE HD Transfection Reagent	Promega	E2311	Transfection Reagent for PhGP cell line
Millex-GP Syringe Filter Unit 0.22 µm	Merck	SLGP033RS	Used for filtering virus supernatant
BD Emerald Hypodermic Syringe	Becton Dickinson	SKU: 307736	Used for filtering virus supernatant
100 mm Culture Dish	Corning	430167	Cell culture
6-well plate	Falcon	10799541	Cell culture
Jeweler Forceps #5	Sklar	66-7642	Used for handling small tail fragments
Sklarlite Iris Scissors	Sklar	23-1149	Used for cutting the tail into small pieces
Lineage Cell Depletion Kit, mouse	Miltenyi Biotec	130-090-858	For depletion of hematopoietic cells in fibroblast cultures
CD117 MicroBeads, mouse	Miltenyi Biotec	130-091-224	For depletion of hematopoietic cells in fibroblast cultures
PheonixGP cells	ATCC	CRL-3215	retroviral packaging cell line
EcoPAC vector (pCL-Eco)	Novus Biologicals	NBP2-29540	retroviral helper vector containing gag and pol genes
pMX-Gata1	Cloned in-lab
pMX-Tal1	Cloned in-lab
pMX-Lmo2	Cloned in-lab
pMX-cMyc	Cloned in-lab
CellSens Standard 1.6 software			Cytospin analysis software