Immunoliposome-mediated delivery of neomycin phosphotransferase for the lineage-specific selection of differentiated/committed stem cell progenies: potential advantages over transfection with marker genes, fluorescence-activated and magnetic affinity cell-sorting

Development of the "Three-step MACS": a novel strategy for isolating rare cell populations in the absence of known cell surface markers from complex animal tissue

To circumvent the difficulty of isolating specific cell populations by MACS from dissociated complex animal tissue, when their proportions reached levels similar to that of the background, we developed the "Three-step MACS" strategy. Cells of interest are defined by their expression of a particular gene(s) of interest rather by than their natural cell surface markers or size. A two-component transgenic cell surface protein, for two sequential rounds of MACS, is expressed under the promoter control of the endogenous gene of interest by means of gene targeting and the generation of transgenic tissue. An initial step to remove dead cells is also used. Here, we describe proof-of-concept experiments, using the biotin acceptor peptide (BAP)-low-affinity nerve growth factor receptor as the two-component protein. The first component, the BAP, can be biotinylated in specific subsets of cells expressing a particular gene by expressing the biotinylating enzyme, hBirA = humanized BirA (hBirA), under the promoter control of another gene defining the specific subpopulation. We showed that a rare population of cells (1.1% of the 13.5 days postcoital mouse embryo) could be enriched to a sufficiently high purity (84.4%). From another sample with 0.1% of our cells of interest, we achieved a 40.3% pure sample. The low cost, speed, and technical ease of the Three-step MACS also make it scalable and hence, an ideal method for preparing sufficient quantities of biological samples for sensitive, high-throughput assays.

Characterization of rat hair follicle stem cells selected by vario magnetic activated cell sorting system

Hair follicle stem cells (HfSCs) play crucial roles in hair follicle morphogenesis and hair cycling. These stem cells are self-renewable and have the multi-lineage potential to generate epidermis, sebaceous glands, and hair follicle. The separation and identification of hair follicle stem cells are important for further research in stem cell biology. In this study, we report on the successful enrichment of rat hair follicle stem cells through vario magnetic activated cell sorting (Vario MACS) and the biological characteristics of the stem cells. We chose the HfSCs positive surface markers CD34, α6-integrin and the negative marker CD71 to design four isolation strategies: positive selection with single marker of CD34, positive selection with single marker of α6-integrin, CD71 depletion followed by CD34 positive selection, and CD71 depletion followed by α6-integrin positive selection. The results of flow cytometry analysis showed that all four strategies had ideal effects. Specifically, we conducted a series of researches on HfSCs characterized by their high level of CD34, termed CD34^bri cells, and low to undetectable expression of CD34, termed CD34^dim cells. CD34^bri cells had greater proliferative potential and higher colony-forming ability than CD34^dim cells. Furthermore, CD34^bri cells had some typical characteristics as progenitor cells, such as large nucleus, obvious nucleolus, large nuclear:cytoplasmic ratio and few cytoplasmic organelles. Our findings clearly demonstrated that HfSCs with high purity and viability could be successfully enriched with Vario MACS.