DNA Minicircle Technique for Stem Cell Reprogramming to Be Commercialized

Pluripotent stem cells can be generated from adult human adipose stem cells by using nonintegrating minicircle DNA plasmids that contain the minimum amount of DNA required to reprogram the cells.

The minicircle method has several advantages over conventional virus or bacterial plasmid procedures for cell reprogramming. DNA minicircles do not integrate into the cell's genome and are naturally lost as the cells divide, overcoming some the safety concerns associated with current reprogramming methods. Since minicircles contain no bacterial plasmid backbone DNA, they are able to evade silencing mechanisms that cells naturally use against foreign DNA.

The DNA minicircles are a type of vector that can be either transfected or electroporated into cells to allow for expression of the reprogramming factors. The mini-circle plasmid remains in the cytoplasm of the cell and is eventually lost from the dividing cells. This approach eliminates integration-site expression variability and mutagenesis that is a drawback to viral approaches that have been used to date.

A paper describing the use of DNA minicircles was published in the March 1, 2010, issue of the journal Nature Methods by investigators at Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA, USA). Now it has been announced that the biotechnology company STEMCELLS Technologies Inc. (Vancouver, Canada) has obtained a license from Stanford University to exploit the technology on a commercial basis and intends to market the DNA minicircles as a product called "STEMcircles”.
"The addition of nonviral, nonintegrating STEMcircle reprogramming vectors to our current product offering is an exciting new opportunity for STEMCELL Technologies as a leading provider of standardized, innovative and high quality tools for pluripotent stem cells,” said Alaine Maxwell, product manager of pluripotent stem cell biology at STEMCELL Technologies.

Related Links:
Stanford University
STEMCELLS Technologies Inc.