A Rapid and Highly Efficient Method for the Isolation, Purification, and Passaging of Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

Abstract

Human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold considerable promise for future biomedical applications. However, the generation, isolation, and establishment of an iPSC line still presents many challenges. In this study, we describe a simple yet highly efficient two-step method for the isolation, purification, and passaging of human iPSC lines that utilizes commercially available reagents. The first step adapts iPSCs to single cell culture and passage, promoting survival and self-renewal; the second step enables the isolation and purification of bona fide iPSCs from a mixed population using column-based positive selection of cells expressing pluripotency markers such as TRA-1-60. Using this method, we were able to purify iPSCs from cell preparations containing differentiated or unreprogrammed cells, and even to isolate iPSC lines directly from derivation plates. The iPSC lines generated by this method maintained their pluripotency and genomic stability, as demonstrated by trilineage differentiation and karyotype analysis. The method presented here could be adopted for high-throughput isolation and expansion of iPSC lines and facilitate the widespread use of iPSCs in future applications.