Induction of pluripotent stem cells from human third molar mesenchymal stromal cells

The expression of four transcription factors (OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4, and c-MYC) can reprogram mouse as well as human somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Expression of the c-MYC, also known as an oncogene, might induce carcinogenesis and thus, iPS cells produced with the use of c-MYC transduction cannot be used for human therapeutic applications. Furthermore, reprogramming efficiency was significantly reduced in the absence of c-MYC transduction. Here, we generated iPS cells from mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) derived from human third molars (wisdom teeth) by retroviral transduction of OCT3/4, SOX2, and KLF4 without c-MYC. Interestingly, clonally expanded MSCs, named 10F-15, could be used for iPS cell generation with 100-fold higher efficiency compared to that of other clonally expanded MSCs and human dermal fibroblasts. These iPS cells resembled human embryonic stem (ES) cells in many aspects, including morphology, ES markers expression, global gene expression, epigenetic states, and the ability to differentiate into the three germ layers in vitro and in vivo. Because human third molars are discarded as clinical waste, our data indicate that MSCs isolated from human third molars are a valuable cell source for the generation of iPS cells. Three types of cells were used for 1-channel expression analysis: (a) human dermal fibroblasts (1 array) (b) human third molar cells (2 different cell lines, 1 array each) (c) virus-carrying human induced pluripotent stem cells (4 different cell lines, 1 array each)