Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells from small volumes of peripheral blood

A method for producing human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from hematopoietic progenitor cells, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) providing a cell population of human peripheral blood cells from one or more subjects whose cells have not been mobilized with extrinsically applied granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) or granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), the population comprising hematopoietic progenitor cells;
• b) culturing said population under feeder-free, defined expansion conditions to promote the expansion of said hematopoietic progenitor cells;
• c) introducing exogenous EBV-based episomal genetic elements into said expanded hematopoietic progenitor cells, wherein said episomal genetic elements replicate extra-chromosomally in said cells and express iPS reprogramming factors, further wherein the exogenous episomal genetic elements have one or more polycistronic cassettes.
• d) culturing said expanded hematopoietic progenitor cells in a media that is essentially free of feeder cells or feeder cell-conditioned medium, or in a xeno-free culture, thereby producing human iPS cells from said hematopoietic progenitor cells;
• and
• e) culturing said iPS cells sufficiently to remove episomal genetic elements.