Toward a CRISPR Picture: Use of CRISPR/Cas9 to Model Diseases in Human Stem Cells In Vitro.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be differentiated into any cell in the body unlocking enormous research potential. Combined with the recent discovery of CRISPR/Cas9 endonucleases in bacteria and their modification for use in biomedical research, these methods have the potential to revolutionize the field of genetic engineering and open the door to generating in vitro models that more closely resemble the in vivo system than ever before. Use of CRISPR/Cas9 has created a whirlwind within the scientific community in the last few years, as the race to move beyond just disease analysis and toward the goal of gene and cell therapy moves further. This review will detail the CRISPR/Cas9 method and its use in stem cells as well as highlight recent studies that demonstrate its use in creating robust disease models. Finally, recent results and current controversies in the field are reviewed and lingering challenges to further development are explored. J. Cell. Biochem. 119: 62-68, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Single nucleotide variations in cultured cancer cells: Effect of mismatch repair.

We assessed single nucleotide variations (SNVs) between individual cells in two cancer cell lines; DU145, from brain metastasis of prostate tumor with deficient mismatch repair; and HT1080, a fibrosarcoma cell line. Clones of individual cells were isolated, and sequenced using Ion Ampliseq comprehensive cancer panel that covered the exomes of 409 oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Five clones of DU145 and four clones of HT1080 cells were analyzed. We found from 7 to 12 unique SNVs between DU145 clones, while HT1080 clones showed no more than one unique SNV. We then sub-cloned individual cells from some of these isolated clones of DU145 and HT1080 cells. The sub-clones were expanded from a single cell to approximately one million cells after about 20 cell divisions. The sub-clones of DU145 cells had from one to four new unique SNVs within the sequenced regions. No unique SNVs were found between sub-clones of HT1080 cells. Our data demonstrate that the extent of genetic variation at the single nucleotide level in cultured cancer cells is significantly affected by the status of the DNA mismatch repair system.