ABSTRACT: Pompe disease is caused by autosomal recessive mutations in the GAA gene, which encodes acid alpha-glucosidase. Although enzyme replacement therapy has recently improved patient survival greatly, the results in skeletal muscles and for advanced disease are still not satisfactory. Here, we report the derivation of Pompe disease induced pluripotent stem cells (PomD-iPSCs) and their potential for pathogenesis modeling, drug testing and disease marker identification. PomD-iPSCs maintained pluripotent features, and had low GAA activity and high glycogen content. Cardiomyocyte-like cells (CMLCs) differentiated from PomD-iPSCs recapitulated the hallmark Pompe disease pathophysiological phenotypes, including high levels of glycogen, abundant intracellular LAMP-1- or LC3-positive granules, and multiple ultrastructural aberrances. Drug rescue assessment showed that exposure of PomD-iPSC-derived CMLCs to rhGAA reversed the major pathologic phenotypes. Further, L-carnitine and 3- methyladenine treatment reduced defective cellular respiration and buildup of phagolysosomes, respectively, in the diseased cells. By comparative transcriptome analysis, we identified glycogen metabolism, lysosome and mitochondria related marker genes whose expression robustly correlated with the therapeutic effect of drug treatment in PomD-iPSC-derived CMLCs. Collectively, these results demonstrate that PomD-iPSCs are a promising in vitro disease model for development of novel therapeutic strategies for Pompe disease. Total RNA were isolated from HESC, HF(Pompe disease), PomD-iPSC, HES-CMLC, and PomD-iPS-CMLC. The series included two HESC lines, two HF(Pompe disease) cell lines, four PomD-iPS cell lines, and HES-CMLC were differentiated from one HESC line(HESC2), PomD-iPS-CMLC were differentiated from 3 PomD-iPS cell lines(PomD-iPSC A10, PomD-iPSC A17, PomD-iPSC B03). Each condition was repeated twice and used HESC as control.
