An Automated Culture System for Maintaining and Differentiating Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Summary

Here, we present a protocol for an automated cell culture system. This automated culture system reduces labor and benefits the users, including researchers unfamiliar with handling induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, from the maintenance of iPS cells to differentiation into various types of cells.

Abstract

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) with infinite self-proliferating ability have been expected to have applications in numerous fields, including the elucidation of rare disease pathologies, the development of new medicines, and regenerative medicine aiming to restore damaged organs. Despite this, the social implementation of hiPSCs is still limited. This is partly because of the difficulty of reproducing differentiation in culture, even with advanced knowledge and sophisticated technical skills, due to the high sensitivity of iPSCs to minute environmental changes. The application of an automated culture system can solve this issue. Experiments with high reproducibility independent of a researcher's skill can be expected according to a shared procedure across various institutes. Although several automated culture systems that can maintain iPSC cultures and induce differentiation have been developed previously, these systems are heavy, large, and costly because they make use of humanized, multi-articulated robotic arms. To improve on the above issues, we developed a new system using a simple x-y-z axis slide rail system, allowing it to be more compact, lighter, and cheaper. Furthermore, the user can easily modify parameters in the new system to develop new handling tasks. Once a task is established, all the user needs to do is prepare the iPSC, supply the reagents and consumables needed for the desired task in advance, select the task number, and specify the time. We confirmed that the system could maintain iPSCs in an undifferentiated state through several passages without feeder cells and differentiate into various cell types, including cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes, neural progenitors, and keratinocytes. The system will enable highly reproducible experiments across institutions without the need for skilled researchers and will facilitate the social implementation of hiPSCs in a wider range of research fields by diminishing the obstacles for new entries.

Introduction

This article aims to provide actual and detailed handling procedures for an automated culture system for human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), which we produced by collaborating with a company, and to show representative results.

Since the publication of the article in 2007, iPSC has been attracting attention all over the world¹. Due to its greatest feature of being able to differentiate into any type of somatic cell, it is expected to be applied in various fields such as regenerative medicine, elucidating the causes of intractable diseases, and developing new therapeutic drugs^2,

Protocol

The Ethics Committee of the Kansai Medical University approved the generation and use of the healthy volunteer-derived iPSCs named KMUR001 (approval No. 2020197). The donor, who was openly recruited, provided formal informed consent and agreed with the scientific usage of the cells.

NOTE: The current interface (the special software named "ccssHMI" running under the Windows XP operating system) is the fundamental operation screen. Under the aforementioned interface, a series of tabs are.......

Discussion

A critical step in the protocol is that if a user finds any faults, click the cancel, stop, or reset button anytime and start over from the first step. The software can avoid human mistakes, including double booking, opening doors while the system tasks are active, and a lack of replenishment. Another critical point for successful and efficient differentiation to the desired somatic cell is the proper selection of pluripotent stem cell lines because each pluripotent stem cell has an uncontrollable bias in its differentia.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
0.15% bovine serum albumin fraction V	Fuji Film Wako Chemical Inc., Miyazaki, Japan	9048-46-8
1% GlutaMAX	Thermo Fisher Scientific	35050061
10 cm plastic plates	Corning Inc., NY, United States	430167
253G1	RKEN Bioresource Research Center	HPS0002
2-mercaptoethanol	Thermo Fisher Scientific	21985023
Actinin  mouse	Abcam	ab9465
Activin A	Nacali Tesque	18585-81
Adenine	Thermo Fisher Scientific	A14906.30
Albumin  rabbit	Dako	A0001
All-trans retinoic acid	Fuji Film Wako Chemical Inc.	186-01114
Automated culture system	Panasonic
B-27 supplement	Thermo Fisher Scientific	17504044
bFGF	Fuji Film Wako Chemical Inc.	062-06661
BMP4	Thermo Fisher Scientific	PHC9531
Bovine serum albumin	Merck	810037
CHIR-99021	MCE, NJ, United States #HY-10182	252917-06-9
Defined Keratinocyte-SFM	Thermo Fisher Scientific	10744019	Human keratinocyte medium
Dexamethasone	Merck	266785
Dihexa	TRC, Ontario, Canada	13071-60-8	rac-1,2-Dihexadecylglycerol
Disposable hemocytometer	CountessTM Cell Counting Chamber Slides, Thermo Fisher Scientific	C10228
Dorsomorphin	Thermo Fisher Scientific	1219168-18-9
Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium/F12	Fuji Film Wako Chemical Inc.	12634010
EGF	Fuji Film Wako Chemical Inc.	053-07751
Essential 8	Thermo Fisher Scientific	A1517001	Human pluripotent stem cell medium
Fetal bovine serum	Biowest, FL, United States	S140T
FGF-basic	Nacalai Tesque Inc.	19155-07
Forskolin	Thermo Fisher Scientific	J63292.MF
Glutamine	Thermo Fisher Scientific	25030081	Glutamine supplement
Goat IgG(H+L) AlexaFluo546	Thermo Scientific	A11056
HNF-4A  goat	Santacruz	6556
Hydrocortisone	Thermo Fisher Scientific	A16292.06
Hydrocortisone 21-hemisuccinate	Merck	H2882
iMatrix511 Silk	Nippi Inc., Tokyo, Japan	892 021	Cell culture matrix
Insulin-transferrin-selenium	Thermo Fisher Scientific	41400045
Keratin 1  mouse	Santacruz	376224
Keratin 10  rabbit	BioLegend	19054
KMUR001	Kansai Medical University		Patient-derived iPSCs
Knockout serum replacement	Thermo Fisher Scientific	10828010
L-ascorbic acid 2-phosphate	A8960, Merck	A8960
Leibovitz’s L-15 medium	Fuji Film Wako Chemical Inc.	128-06075
Matrigel	Corning Inc.	354277
Mouse IgG(H+L) AlexaFluo488	Thermo Scientific	A21202
N-2 supplement	Thermo Fisher Scientific	17502048
Nestin mouse	Santacruz	23927
Neurobasal medium	Thermo Fisher Scientific	21103049
Neurofilament  rabbit	Chemicon	AB1987
Neutristem	Sartrius AG, Göttingen, Germany	05-100-1A	cell culture medium
Oct 3/4  mouse	BD	611202
PBS(-)	Nacalai Tesque Inc., Kyoto, Japan	14249-24
Rabbit IgG(H+L) AlexaFluo488	Thermo Scientific	A21206
Rabbit IgG(H+L) AlexaFluo546	Thermo Scientific	A10040
Recombinant human albumin	A0237, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany	A9731
Rho kinase inhibitor, Y-27632	Sellec Inc., Tokyo, Japan	129830-38-2
RIKEN 2F	RKEN Bioresource Research Center	HPS0014	undifferentiated hiPSCs
RPMI 1640	Thermo Fisher Scientific #11875	12633020
SB431542	Thermo Fisher Scientific	301836-41-9
Sodium L-ascorbate	Merck	A4034-100G
SSEA-4  mouse	Millipore	MAB4304
StemFit AK02N	Ajinomoto, Tokyo, Japan	AK02	cell culture medium
TnT rabbit	Abcam	ab92546
TRA 1-81 mouse	Millipore	MAB4381
Triiodothyronine	Thermo Fisher Scientific	H34068.06
TripLETM express enzyme	Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, United States	12604013
Trypan blue solution	Nacalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan	20577-34
Tryptose phosphate broth	Merck	T8782-500G
Wnt-C59	Bio-techne, NB, United Kingdom	5148
β  Tublin  mouse	Promega	G712A