In vitro models of postimplantation human development are valuable to the fields of regenerative medicine and developmental biology. Here, we report characterization of a robust in vitro platform that enabled high-content screening of multiple human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) lines for their ability to undergo peri-gastrulation-like fate patterning upon bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) treatment of geometrically confined colonies and observed significant heterogeneity in their differentiation propensities along a gastrulation associable and neuralization associable axis. This cell line-associated heterogeneity was found to be attributable to endogenous Nodal expression, with up-regulation of Nodal correlated with expression of a gastrulation-associated gene profile, and Nodal down-regulation correlated with a preneurulation-associated gene profile expression. We harness this knowledge to establish a platform of preneurulation-like fate patterning in geometrically confined hPSC colonies in which fates arise because of a BMPs signalling gradient conveying positional information. Our work identifies a Nodal signalling-dependent switch in peri-gastrulation versus preneurulation-associated fate patterning in hPSC cells, provides a technology to robustly assay hPSC differentiation outcomes, and suggests conserved mechanisms of organized fate specification in differentiating epiblast and ectodermal tissues.

This review briefly describes the last decades of experimental work on the thymus. Given the histological complexity of this organ, the multiple embryological origins of its cellular components and its role in carefully regulating T lymphocyte maturation and function, methods to dissect and understand this complexity have been developed through the years. The possibility to study ex vivo the thymus organ function has been achieved by developing Fetal Thymus Organ Cultures (FTOC). Subsequently, the combination of organ disaggregation and reaggregation in vitro represented by Reaggregate Thymus Organ cultures (RTOC) allowed mixing cellular components from different genetic backgrounds. Moreover, RTOC allowed dissecting the different stromal and hematological components to study the interactions between Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) molecules and the T-cell receptors during thymocytes selection. In more recent years, prospective isolation of stromal cells and thymocytes at different stages of development made it possible to explore and elucidate the molecular and cellular players in both the developing and adult thymus. Finally, the appearance of novel cell sources such as embryonic stem (ES) cells and more recently induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells has opened new scenarios in modelling thymus development and regeneration strategies. Most of the work described was carried out in rodents and the current challenge is to develop equivalent or even more informative assays and tools in entirely human model systems.

In vitro models of post-implantation human development are valuable to the fields of regenerative medicine and developmental biology. Here, we report characterization of a robust in vitro platform that enabled high-content screening of multiple human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) lines for their ability to undergo peri-gastrulation-like fate patterning upon BMP4 treatment of geometrically-confined colonies and observed significant heterogeneity in their differentiation propensities along a gastrulation associable and neuralization associable axis. This cell line associated heterogeneity was found to be attributable to endogenous nodal expression, with upregulation of Nodal correlated with expression of a gastrulation-associated gene profile, and Nodal downregulation correlated with a neurulation-associated gene profile expression. We harness this knowledge to establish a platform of pre-neurulation-like fate patterning in geometrically confined hPSC colonies that arises due to a stepwise activation of reaction-diffusion and positional-information. Our work identifies a Nodal signalling dependent switch in peri-gastrulation versus pre-neurulation-associated fate patterning in hPSC cells, provides a technology to robustly assay hPSC differentiation outcomes, and suggests conserved mechanisms of self-organized fate specification in differentiating epiblast and ectodermal tissues.

Summary StatementThis study reports that hMSC can be manipulated in order to engineer a bone organ, characterised by mature osseous and vascular components and capable to recruit, host and maintain functional HSCs.IntroductionBone tissue engineering strategies are typically based on methods involving adult human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (hMSC) in a process resembling intramembranous ossification. However, most bones develop and repair through endochondral ossification. In addition, endochondral ossification presents several advantages for regenerative purposes such as osteogenic activity, capability to drive formation of the Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) niche, resistance to hypoxia, intrinsic vasculogenic potential and, consequently, efficiency of engraftment. In this study, we aimed at developing an endochondral bone organ model characterised by functional osseous and hematopoietic compartments by using hMSC.Materials & MethodsExpanded hMSC were seeded onto 8 mm diameter, 2 mm thick collagen sponges (U...

Current in vivo models for investigating human primary bone tumors and cancer metastasis to the bone rely on the injection of human cancer cells into the mouse skeleton. This approach does not mimic species-specific mechanisms occurring in human diseases and may preclude successful clinical translation. We have developed a protocol to engineer humanized bone within immunodeficient hosts, which can be adapted to study the interactions between human cancer cells and a humanized bone microenvironment in vivo. A researcher trained in the principles of tissue engineering will be able to execute the protocol and yield study results within 4-6 months. Additive biomanufactured scaffolds seeded and cultured with human bone-forming cells are implanted ectopically in combination with osteogenic factors into mice to generate a physiological bone 'organ', which is partially humanized. The model comprises human bone cells and secreted extracellular matrix (ECM); however, other components of the engineered tissue, such as the vasculature, are of murine origin. The model can be further humanized through the engraftment of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that can lead to human hematopoiesis within the murine host. The humanized organ bone model has been well characterized and validated and allows dissection of some of the mechanisms of the bone metastatic processes in prostate and breast cancer.

Bone development, growth, and repair predominantly occur through the process of endochondral ossification, characterized by remodelling of cartilaginous templates. The same route efficiently supports engineering of bone marrow as a niche for hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). Here we describe a combined in vitro/in vivo system based on bone marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells (MSC) that duplicates the hallmark cellular and molecular events of endochondral ossification during development. The model requires MSC culture with instructive molecules to generate hypertrophic cartilage tissues. The resulting constructs complete the endochondral route upon in vivo implantation, in the timeframe of up to 12 weeks. The described protocol is clearly distinct from the direct ossification approach typically used to drive MSC towards osteogenesis. Recapitulation of endochondral ossification allows modelling of stromal-HSC interactions in physiology and pathology and allows engineering processes underlying bone regeneration.

Enzymatic isolation of chondrocytes from a cartilage biopsy is the first step to establish in vitro models of chondrogenesis or to generate cell-based grafts for cartilage repair. Such process is based on manually operated procedures and typically results in yields lower than 20% of the total available cells. In this study, we hypothesized that, as compared to conventionally used protocols, the enzymatic digestion of human articular cartilage in the presence of ascorbic acid 2-phosphate (AscA2P) or of sodium chloride (NaCl), in combination with the use of a perfusion bioreactor system, leads to a higher and more reproducible yield of cell populations with high proliferation and chondrogenic capacity. The addition of AscA2P within the enzymatic digestion medium did not significantly increase the cell yield, but resulted in a significant decrease of the intradonor variability in cell yield (-17.8% ± 10.7%, p = 0.0247) and in a significant increase of the proliferation rate of the isolated chondrocytes (+19.0% ± 1.4%, p < 0.05) with respect to the control group. The addition of NaCl during cartilage digestion did not modulate cell yield. When the cartilage digestion was further performed under direct perfusion flow, beneficial synergistic effects were achieved, with an overall increase of 34.7% ± 6.8% (p < 0.001) in the cell yield and an average decrease of 57.8% ± 11.2% (p < 0.01) in the coefficient of variation with respect to the control group. Importantly, by implementing this strategy it was possible to retrieve clonal subpopulations more efficiently capable of undergoing chondrogenesis, both in vitro and in vivo. Our findings bear relevance for the preparation of human chondrocytes for laboratory investigations, and in the perspective of efficient and streamlined manufacturing of cell/tissue grafts for articular cartilage repair.

Mesenchymal stromal/stem cell (MSC) expansion in conventional monolayer culture on plastic dishes (2D) leads to progressive loss of functionality and thus challenges fundamental studies on the physiology of skeletal progenitors, as well as translational applications for cellular therapy and molecular medicine. Here we demonstrate that 2D MSC expansion can be entirely bypassed by culturing freshly isolated bone marrow nucleated cells within 3D porous scaffolds in a perfusion-based bioreactor system. The 3D-perfusion system generated a stromal tissue that could be enzymatically treated to yield CD45- MSC. As compared to 2D-expanded MSC (control), those derived from 3D-perfusion culture after the same time (3 weeks) or a similar extent of proliferation (7-8 doublings) better maintained their progenitor properties, as assessed by a 4.3-fold higher clonogenicity and the superior differentiation capacity towards all typical mesenchymal lineages. Transcriptomic analysis of MSC from 5 donors validated the robustness of the process and indicated a reduced inter-donor variability and a significant upregulation of multipotency-related gene clusters following 3D-perfusion--as compared to 2D-expansion. Interestingly, the differences in functionality and transcriptomics between MSC expanded in 2D or under 3D-perfusion were only partially captured by cytofluorimetric analysis using conventional surface markers. The described system offers a multidisciplinary approach to study how factors of a 3D engineered niche regulate MSC function and, by streamlining conventional labor-intensive processes, is prone to automation and scalability within closed bioreactor systems.

Embryonic development, lengthening, and repair of most bones proceed by endochondral ossification, namely through formation of a cartilage intermediate. It was previously demonstrated that adult human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (hMSCs) can execute an endochondral program and ectopically generate mature bone. Here we hypothesized that hMSCs pushed through endochondral ossification can engineer a scaled-up ossicle with features of a “bone organ,” including physiologically remodeled bone, mature vasculature, and a fully functional hematopoietic compartment. Engineered hypertrophic cartilage required IL-1β to be efficiently remodeled into bone and bone marrow upon subcutaneous implantation. This model allowed distinguishing, by analogy with bone development and repair, an outer, cortical-like perichondral bone, generated mainly by host cells and laid over a premineralized area, and an inner, trabecular-like, endochondral bone, generated mainly by the human cells and formed over the cartilaginous template. Hypertrophic cartilage remodeling was paralleled by ingrowth of blood vessels, displaying sinusoid-like structures and stabilized by pericytic cells. Marrow cavities of the ossicles contained phenotypically defined hematopoietic stem cells and progenitor cells at similar frequencies as native bones, and marrow from ossicles reconstituted multilineage long-term hematopoiesis in lethally irradiated mice. This study, by invoking a “developmental engineering” paradigm, reports the generation by appropriately instructed hMSC of an ectopic “bone organ” with a size, structure, and functionality comparable to native bones. The work thus provides a model useful for fundamental and translational studies of bone morphogenesis and regeneration, as well as for the controlled manipulation of hematopoietic stem cell niches in physiology and pathology.

71 Long-term outcomes after autologous haematopoietic cell transplantation for multiple sclerosis: a joint study from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Research (CIBMTR) and the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantat P. Muraro (1), M. Pasquini (2), H. Atkins (3), J. Bowen (4), D. Farge (5), A. Fassas (6), M. Freedman (3), G. Georges (7), N. Hamerschlak (8), E. Havdrova (9), T. Kozak (9), G. Luigi Mancardi (10), D. Morais (11), R. Nash (7), S. Pavletic (12), J. Ouyang (13), A. Saiz (14), M. Badoglio (15), X. Zhong (2), M. Pia Sormani (10), R. Saccardi (16) (1)Imperial College/Hammersmith Hospital (London, GB); (2)Medical College of Wisconsin, CIBMTR (Milwaukee, US); (3)The Ottawa Hospital Blood & Marrow Transplant Program (Ottawa, CA); (4)Swedish Neuroscience Institute (Seattle, US); (5)St. Louis Hospital (Paris, FR); (6)George Papanicolaou Genberal Hospital (Thessaloniki, GR); (7)Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, US); (8)Albert Einstein Hospital (Sao Paolo, BR); (9)General University Hospital, Charles University (Prague, CZ); (10)University of Genoa (Genoa, IT); (11)Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (Ribeirão Preto, BR); (12)National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, US); (13)Hospital of Nanjing (Nanjing, CN); (14)Hospital Clinic of Barcelona (Barcelona, ES); (15)European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (Paris, FR); (16)University of Florence, Ospedale di Careggi (Florence, IT)

The niche is a conserved regulator of stem cell quiescence and function. During ageing, stem cell function declines. To what extent and by what means age-related changes within the niche contribute to this phenomenon are unknown. Here we demonstrate that the aged muscle stem cell niche, the muscle fibre, expresses Fgf2 under homeostatic conditions, driving a subset of satellite cells to break quiescence and lose their self-renewing capacity. We show in mice that relatively dormant aged satellite cells robustly express sprouty 1 (Spry1), an inhibitor of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signalling. Increasing FGF signalling in aged satellite cells under homeostatic conditions by removing Spry1 results in the loss of quiescence, satellite cell depletion and diminished regenerative capacity. Conversely, reducing niche-derived FGF activity through inhibition of Fgfr1 signalling or overexpression of Spry1 in satellite cells prevents their depletion. These experiments identify an age-dependent change in the stem cell niche that directly influences stem cell quiescence and function. PMID: 23023126 Funding information This work was supported by: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, United Kingdom Grant ID: BB/F017626/1 NIAMS NIH HHS, United States Grant ID: R01 AR061002 NIAMS NIH HHS, United States Grant ID: R01 AR060868 Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom Grant ID: 091475