Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have potential in human disease modeling and regenerative medicine. The in vitro phenotype of disease-specific iPSC-derived cells can be used to bridge the knowledge gap between clinical phenotype and molecular or cellular pathophysiology and to understand the pathology of diseases, along with further applications, such as creating new strategies for drug screening or developing novel therapeutic agents. The aim of our study was to generate iPSCs from multiple myeloma (MM) patients.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from MM patients were induced for pluripotency via the Sendai virus. Fibroblasts were used as a control. Microscopic analysis was performed daily. For colony selection, live staining was done using alkaline phosphatase staining. Reprogramming experiments were confirmed by flow cytometry, immunofluorescence (IF) staining, and gene expression analyses. To confirm the spontaneous differentiation potential, an in vitro embryonic body (EB) formation assay was performed.

Fibroblasts and MSCs obtained from MM patients were reprogrammed using the Sendai virus, which contains reprogramming vectors with the four Yamanaka factors, Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. Microscopic analysis revealed that the generated iPSCs possessed classical embryonic stem cell-like morphological characteristics. Reprogramming experiments further showed that both cell lines can be reprogrammed up to the pluripotent stage, which was confirmed by flow cytometry, IF staining, and gene expression analyses. Spontaneous differentiation potential was confirmed by in vitro EB formation assays.

iPSCs have been successfully obtained from MM patients for the first time. These cells could clarify the molecular mechanisms behind this disease.