Name: feeder-free derivation of melanocytes from human pluripotent stem cells
Uploaded: 2016-03-03T15:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Feeder-free Derivation of Melanocytes from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells at JoVE.com

This work was supported by a fellowship for melanoma researchers from the Joanna M. Nicolay Foundation and by the National Institutes of Health under Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award F31. This work was further supported through grants from NYSTEM and the Tri-institutional stem cell initiative (Starr Foundation).

NOTE: The melanocyte protocol outlined here was first demonstrated by Mica et al.
1. Preparation of Culture Medium, Coated Dishes and Maintenance of hPSCs
<ol>
	<li>Medium Preparation 
	Note: Store all medium at 4 &#176;C in the dark for up to 2 weeks. Filter all medium for sterilization.
	<ol>
		<li>Prepare DMEM/10% FBS. Mix 885 ml DMEM, 100 ml FBS, 10 ml Pen/Strep and 5 ml L-Glutamine. Filter for sterilization.</li>
		<li>Prepare hESC-medium. Mix 800 ml DMEM/F12, 200 ml KSR, 5 ml L-Gl...

<ol>
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For the successful differentiation of melanocytes from hPSCs the following suggestions should be taken into consideration. First and foremost, it is essential to work under sterile culture conditions at all times. Additionally, it is important to start with pluripotent, fully undifferentiated hPSCs; if the starting population contains differentiated cells the yield will invariably drop as the contaminants cannot be directed towards melanocytes and may even further disrupt the properly differentiating cells.
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Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) provide a platform to mimic normal differentiation in a scalable fashion for disease modeling, drug screening, and cell replacement therapies 1-6. Of particular interest, hPSCs open up avenues for studying difficult to isolate or rare/transient cell types where patient samples are scarce. Furthermore, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) enable researchers to study development and disease modeling in a patient specific manner to unravel unique mechanisms 1,2,7-11. The previously published protocol for differentiation of melanocytes from hPSCs requires up to 6 weeks of differentiations and involves culturing cells with conditioned medium from L-Wnt3a cells 12. The protocol first presented by Mica et al. and described here produces pigmented cells in three weeks and removes the ambiguity and inconsistencies associated with conditioned medium.
Melanocytes are derived from the neural crest, a migratory population of cells unique to vertebrates. The neural crest is defined during gastrulation and represents a population of cells at the edge of the neural plate, bordering between the neural and non-neural ectoderm. During neurulation, the nervous tissue evolves from a neural plate to form neural folds, which converge at the dorsal midline resulting in the neural tube 13,14.
The neural crest cells emerge from the roof plate of the neural tube, opposite the notochord, and undergo an epithelial to mesenchymal transition before migrating away to give rise to a diverse population of differentiated cells. The fates of the crest cells are defined in part by the anatomic location of the roof plate along the body axis of the embryo. Neural crest cell derivatives include lineages characteristic of both mesoderm (smooth muscle cells, osteoblasts, adipocytes, chondrocytes) and ectoderm cells (melanocytes, Schwann cells, neurons) 14. Neural crest stem cells upregulate the transcription factor SOX10 and can be isolated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting with antibodies to p75 and HNK1.
The neural crest cells fated to become melanocytes pass through a melanoblast stage and upregulate KIT and MITF (microphthalmia-associated transcription factor) 6,21 MITF is a master regulator of melanocyte development and is a transcription factor responsible for controlling much of melanocyte development 22-24. Human melanoblasts migrate to the basal layer of the epidermis where they reside either in the hair bulge or surrounded by keratinocytes in the epidermis (forming pigmentation units) to serve as precursors to the mature, pigmented melanocytes. The differentiation and maturation of melanoblasts into pigmented melanocytes occurs concomitant with colonization of the hair bulb and expression of the melanin production pathway (TYRP1, TYR, OCA2 and PMEL) 25,26.
Isolating human melanocytes and melanoblasts from patients is expensive, difficult and limiting in quantity. This protocol enables researchers to differentiate hPSCs (induced or embryonic) into melanocytes or melanocyte precursors in a well defined, rapid, reproducible, scalable, and inexpensive method without cell sorting. The protocol was used previously to identify disease-specific defects when differentiating iPSCs from patients with pigmentation disorders .

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	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Accutase</td>
			<td>Innovative Cell Technologies</td>
			<td>AT104</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>apo human transferrin</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>T1147</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ascorbic Acid (L-AA)</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>A4034</td>
			<td>100 mM</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>B27 (B27 Supplement)</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>17504044</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>&#946;-Mercaptoethanol</td>
			<td>Gibco-Life Technologies</td>
			<td>21985-023</td>
			<td>10 mg/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>BMP4</td>
			<td>R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td>314-bp</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>CHIR99021</td>
			<td>Tocris-R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td>4423</td>
			<td>6 mM</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cholera toxin</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>C8052</td>
			<td>50 mg/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>cAMP (cyclicAMP)</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>D0627</td>
			<td>100 mM</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dexamethasone</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>D2915-100MG</td>
			<td>50 &#956;M</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM - Dulbecco&#39;s Modified Eagle Medium</td>
			<td>Gibco-Life Technologies</td>
			<td>11985-092</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM/F12 - Dulbecco&#39;s Modified Eagle Medium: Nutrient Mixture F-12</td>
			<td>Gibco-Life Technologies</td>
			<td>1133--032</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM/F12 powder</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>12500-096</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EDN3 (Endothelin-3, human)</td>
			<td>American Peptide Company</td>
			<td>88-5-10B</td>
			<td>100 &#956;M</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fibronectin</td>
			<td>BD Biosciences</td>
			<td>356008</td>
			<td>200 &#956;g/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>gelatin (PBS without Mg/Ca)</td>
			<td>in house</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>0.1% in PBS</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glucose</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>G7021</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Human insulin</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>I2643</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>ITS+ Universal Culture Supplement Premix&#160;</td>
			<td>BD Biosciences</td>
			<td>354352</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>KSR (Knockout Serum Replacement)</td>
			<td>Gibco-Life Technologies</td>
			<td>10828-028</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Knockout DMEM</td>
			<td>Gibco-Life Technologies</td>
			<td>10829-018</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>L-Glutamine</td>
			<td>Gibco-Life Technologies</td>
			<td>25030-081</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>LDN193189</td>
			<td>Stemgent</td>
			<td>04-0074</td>
			<td>100 mM</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Low glucose DMEM</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>11885-084</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Matrigel matrix</td>
			<td>BD Biosciences</td>
			<td>354234</td>
			<td>Dissolve 1:20 in DMEM/F12</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MCDB201 Medium</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>M6770</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MEM minimum essential amino acids solution</td>
			<td>Gibco-Life Technologies</td>
			<td>11140-080</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (7 million cells/vial)</td>
			<td>GlobalStem</td>
			<td>GSC-8105M</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Mouse Laminin-I</td>
			<td>R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td>3400-010-01</td>
			<td>1 mg/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Neurobasal medium</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>21103049</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicilin/Streptomycin</td>
			<td>Gibco-Life Technologies</td>
			<td>15140-122</td>
			<td>10,000 U/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Poly-L Omithin hydrobromide</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>P3655</td>
			<td>15 mg/ml&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Progesterone</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>P8783</td>
			<td>0.032g in 100ml 100% ethanol</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Putrescine dihydrochloride</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>P5780</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FGF2 (Recombinant human FGF basic)</td>
			<td>R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td>233-FB-001MG/CF</td>
			<td>10 mg/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SB431542</td>
			<td>Tocris-R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td>1814</td>
			<td>10 mM</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Selenite</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>S5261</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sodium Bicarbonate</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>S5761</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SCF (Stem Cell Factor, recombinant Human)&#160;</td>
			<td>Peprotech Inc.</td>
			<td>300-07</td>
			<td>50 &#956;g/ml</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>TYRP1 (G-17) Antibody</td>
			<td>Santa Cruz</td>
			<td>10443</td>
			<td>1:200</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>TYRP2 Antibody</td>
			<td>Abcam</td>
			<td>74073</td>
			<td>1:200</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trypsin-EDTA (0.05%)</td>
			<td>Gibco-Life Technologies</td>
			<td>25300-054</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Y-27632 dihydrochloride</td>
			<td>Tocris-R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td>1254</td>
			<td>10 mM</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
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feeder-free derivation of melanocytes from human pluripotent stem cells

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represent a platform to study human development in vitro under both normal and disease conditions. Researchers can direct the differentiation of hPSCs into the cell type of interest by manipulating the culture conditions to recapitulate signals seen during development. One such cell type is the melanocyte, a pigment-producing cell of neural crest (NC) origin responsible for protecting the skin against UV irradiation. This protocol presents an extension of a currently available in vitro Neural Crest differentiation protocol from hPSCs to further differentiate NC into fully pigmented melanocytes. Melanocyte precursors can be enriched from the Neural Crest protocol via a timed exposure to activators of WNT, BMP, and EDN3 signaling under dual-SMAD-inhibition conditions. The resultant melanocyte precursors are then purified and matured into fully pigmented melanocytes by culture in a selective medium. The resultant melanocytes are fully pigmented and stain appropriately for proteins characteristic of mature melanocytes.

This protocol provides a method for deriving fully pigmented, mature melanocytes from hPSCs in an in vitro feeder-free, cost efficient, and reproducible manner. In contrast to the previously established Fang et al. protocol for hPSC-derived melanocytes, the outlined protocol does not require conditioned medium and decreases the time requirement. The Fang et al. protocol utilized conditioned medium from a WNT3A-producing murine cell line and took up to 6 weeks to...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Feeder-free Derivation of Melanocytes from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells at JoVE.com

Feeder-free Derivation of Melanocytes from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

This work describes an in vitro differentiation protocol to produce pigmented, mature melanocytes from human pluripotent stem cells via a neural crest and melanoblast intermediate stage using a feeder-free, 25 day protocol.

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represent a platform to study human development in vitro under both normal and disease conditions. Researchers can ...

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Developmental Biology

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Integration Free Derivation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Using Laminin 521 Matrix

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Efficient Differentiation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells into Liver Cells

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In Vitro Generation of Somite Derivatives from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

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