Endowing iPSC-Derived MSCs with Angiogenic and Keratinogenic Differentiation Potential: A Promising Cell Source for Skin Tissue Engineering

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) hold tremendous potential for personalized cell-based therapy for skin regeneration. Aiming to establish human iPSCs as a potential cell source for skin tissue engineering, we expect to obtain an epidermal-like cell line with angiogenic and keratinogenic differentiation potential via inducing iPSC-derived mesenchymal stem cells (iPSC-MSCs) with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and/or keratinocyte growth factor (KGF). The results show that iPSC-MSCs were successfully induced with a positive FGFR/KGFR expression on the cell surface. BFGF/KGF induction could significantly increase the expression of vascularization marker CD31 and keratinization marker CK10, respectively, while when combined together, although CD31 and CK10 were still positively expressed, their expressions were lower than that of the single induction group, suggesting that the effects of the two growth factors interfered with each other. This cell line with angiogenic and keratinogenic differentiation potential provides a promising new source of cells for the construction of well vascularized and keratinized tissue engineered skin, furthermore establishing an effective strategy for iPSC-based therapy in skin tissue engineering.