Reprogramming Human Melanocytes and Melanoma Cells with Yamanaka Factors

Abstract

The generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from somatic cells showed that cell fate could be manipulated by simply introducing a few transcription factors. The differentiation potential of iPS cells has uncovered a wide range of potential applications, including disease modeling, drug screening and regenerative therapy. In this study, we aimed to induce reprogramming of human melanocytes and melanoma cell lines via Sendai viral vectors encoding Yamanaka factors. Following transfection, pluripotent stem cell colonies have emerged in the melanocyte cultures, as evident by phase-contrast and fluorescence microscopy images. However, only cell clusters which were not positive for pluripotency markers were obtained in the melanoma cell cultures. This proved that there are differences between healthy and cancer cell reprogramming. Basal gene expression of Yamanaka factors, pluripotency markers and tumor-suppressor genes have been identified in order to understand the different responses for cell reprogramming in melanocytes and cancer cell lines. Future studies that will allow efficient reprogramming of cancer cells can improve our knowledge about cancer biology and therapy

Keywords

• iPS cells,melanoma,melanocytes,Yamanaka factors,cell reprogramming

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