Abstract
Baculovirus is a promising vector for gene therapy while induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells hold great potential in regenerative medicine. It is reported that baculovirus can successfully transduce embryonic stem cells, yet whether baculovirus can transduce iPS cell remains unknown. Due to the similarity of gene expression, surface markers and differentiation functionality between embryonic stem cells and iPS cells, creating a system to transduce iPS cells is feasible. This study aims to employ baculovirus to deliver appropriate transgenes into iPS cells in order to induce iPS cells differentiation into hematopoietic progenitors. We first constructed the recombinant baculoviruses carrying the transgenes and then evaluated the gene expression mediated by different promoters and the dosage effect of sodium butyrate. We found that in iPS cells CAG promoter drove the gene expression better than the CMV and EF1-α promoter, and discovered that high dosage of sodium butyrate affected embryonic body forming. Second, we constructed five different viruses carrying different genes encoding various growth factors and transcription factors. After virus transduction of iPS cells, we analyzed the transgene expression and the efficiency of hematopoiesis differentiation by ELISA, RT-PCR and flow cytometry. This study can open a new avenue to direct the iPS differentiation toward the hematopoietic lineage.