Teratoma Formation Assay for Assessing Pluripotency and Tumorigenicity of Pluripotent Stem Cells

Overview

Journal Bio Protoc

Specialty Biology

Date 2021 Sep 20

PMID 34541178

Citations 5

Authors

Shingo Miyawaki

Yohei Okada

Hideyuki Okano

Kyoko Miura

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Pluripotent stem cells such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs) form teratomas when transplanted into immunodeficient mice. As teratomas contain all three germ layers (endoderm, mesoderm, ectoderm), teratoma formation assay is widely used as an index of pluripotency (Evans and Kaufman, 1981; Hentze , 2009 ; Gropp , 2012 ). On the other hand, teratoma-forming tumorigenicity also represents a major risk factor impeding potential clinical applications of pluripotent stem cells ( Miura , 2009 ; Okano , 2013 ). Recently, we reported that iPSCs derived from naked mole-rat lack teratoma-forming tumorigenicity when engrafted into the testes of non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice due to an ES cell-expressed Ras (ERAS) and Alternative reading frame (ARF)-dependent tumor-suppression mechanism specific to this species ( Miyawaki , 2016 ). Here, we describe a method for transplanting pluripotent stem cells into the testes of NOD/SCID mice to generate teratomas for assessing the pluripotency and tumorigenicity.

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