Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells from human cord blood cells with only two factors:OCT4 and SOX2

Abstract

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC ) provide an invaluable resource for regenerative medicine as they allow the generation/nof patient-specific progenitors with potential value for cell therapy. However, in many instances, an off-the-shelf approach is/ndesirable, such as for cell therapy of acute conditions or when the patient’s somatic cells are altered as a consequence of a chronic/ndisease or aging. Cord blood (CB) stem cells appear ideally suited for this purpose as they are young cells expected to carry/nminimal somatic mutations and possess the immunological immaturity of newborn cells; additionally, several hundred thousand/nimmunotyped CB units are readily available through a worldwide network of CB banks. Here we present a detailed protocol for the/nderivation of CB stem cells and how they can be reprogrammed to pluripotency by retroviral transduction with only two factors/n(OCT 4 and SO X2) in 2 weeks and without the need for additional chemical compounds.