Generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells from a Bombay individual: Moving towards universal-donor red blood cells

Bombay phenotype is one of the rare phenotypes in the ABO blood group system that fails to express ABH antigens oil red blood cells Nonsense or missense mutations in fucosyltransfrase1 (FUT1) and fucosyltransfrase2 (FUT2) genes are known to create this phenotype This blood group is compatible with all other blood groups as a donor, as it does not express the H antigen on the red blood cells In this Study. we describe the establishment of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from the dermal fibroblasts of a Bombay blood-type individual by the ectopic expression of established transcription factors Klf4, Oct4, Sox2, and c-Myc. Sequence analyses of fibroblasts and iPSCs revealed a nonsense Mutation 826C to T (276 Gin to Ter) in the Fun gene and a missense mutation 739G to A (247 Gly to Ser) in the FUT2 gene in the Bombay phenotype under study The established iPSCs resemble human embryonic stem cells in morphology, passaging, surface and pluripotency markets, normal karyotype, gene expression. DNA methylation of critical pluripotency genes. and in-vitro differentiation. The directed differentiation of the iPSCs into hematopoietic lineage cells displayed Increased expression of the hematopoietic lineage markers such as CD34, CD133, RUNX1, KDR, alpha-globulin, and gamma-globulin Such specific stem cells provide all unprecedented opportunity to produce a universal blood group donor, in-vitro, thus enabling cellular replacement therapies, once the safety issue is resolved (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved