Overexpression of nuclear receptor 5A1 induces and maintains an intermediate state of conversion between primed and naive pluripotency
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ABSTRACT: Naive and primed human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have provided useful insights into the regulation of pluripotency. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating naive conversion remain elusive. Here, we report intermediate naive conversion induced by overexpressing nuclear receptor 5A1 (NR5A1) in hPSCs. The cells displayed some naive features, such as clonogenicity, glycogen synthase kinase 3β and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) independence, expression of naive-associated genes, and two activated X chromosomes, but lacked others such as KLF17 expression, transforming growth factor β independence, and imprinted gene demethylation. Notably, NR5A1 negated MAPK activation by fibroblast growth factor 2, leading to cell-autonomous self-renewal independent of MAPK inhibition. These phenotypes may be associated with naive conversion, and were regulated by a DPPA2/4-dependent pathway that activates the selective expression of naive-associated genes. This study increases our understanding of the mechanisms regulating the conversion from primed to naive pluripotency.
Project description:Naive and primed human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have provided useful insights into the regulation of pluripotency. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating naive conversion remain elusive. Here, we report intermediate naive conversion induced by overexpressing nuclear receptor 5A1 (NR5A1) in hPSCs. The cells displayed some naive features, such as clonogenicity, glycogen synthase kinase 3β and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) independence, expression of naive-associated genes, and two activated X chromosomes, but lacked others such as KLF17 expression, transforming growth factor β independence, and imprinted gene demethylation. Notably, NR5A1 negated MAPK activation by fibroblast growth factor 2, leading to cell-autonomous self-renewal independent of MAPK inhibition. These phenotypes may be associated with naive conversion, and were regulated by a DPPA2/4-dependent pathway that activates the selective expression of naive-associated genes. This study increases our understanding of the mechanisms regulating the conversion from primed to naive pluripotency.
Project description:Naive and primed human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have provided useful insights into the regulation of pluripotency. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating naive conversion remain elusive. Here, we report intermediate naive conversion induced by overexpressing nuclear receptor 5A1 (NR5A1) in hPSCs. The cells displayed some naive features, such as clonogenicity, glycogen synthase kinase 3β and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) independence, expression of naive-associated genes, and two activated X chromosomes, but lacked others such as KLF17 expression, transforming growth factor β independence, and imprinted gene demethylation. Notably, NR5A1 negated MAPK activation by fibroblast growth factor 2, leading to cell-autonomous self-renewal independent of MAPK inhibition. These phenotypes may be associated with naive conversion, and were regulated by a DPPA2/4-dependent pathway that activates the selective expression of naive-associated genes. This study increases our understanding of the mechanisms regulating the conversion from primed to naive pluripotency.
Project description:Although cell therapies require large numbers of quality-controlled hPSCs, existing technologies are limited in their ability to efficiently grow and scale stem cells. We report here that cell-state conversion from primed-to-naïve pluripotency enhances the biomanufacturing of hPSCs. Naïve hPSCs exhibit superior growth kinetics and aggregate formation characteristics in stirred suspension bioreactors compared to their primed counterparts. Moreover, we demonstrate the role of the bioreactor mechanical environment in the maintenance of naïve pluripotency, through transcriptomic enrichment of mechano-sensing signaling for cells in the bioreactor along with a decrease in expression of lineage-specific and primed pluripotency hallmarks. Bioreactor-cultured, naïve hPSCs express epigenetic regulatory transcripts associated with naïve pluripotency, and display hallmarks of X-chromosome reactivation. They exhibit robust production of naïve pluripotency metabolites and display reduced expression of primed pluripotency cell surface markers. We also show that these cells retain the ability to undergo targeted differentiation into beating cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes, and neural rosettes. They additionally display faster kinetics of teratoma formation compared to their primed counterparts. Naïve bioreactor hPSCs also retain structurally stable chromosomes. Our research corroborates that converting hPSCs to the naïve state enhances hPSC manufacturing and indicates a potentially important role for the bioreactor’s mechanical environment in maintaining naïve pluripotency.
Project description:Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) are in naive pluripotency that represents the ground state of development, from which all cells in the mouse embryo are derived. In contrast, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are in a primed state of pluripotency with many different properties. Despite intense efforts to generate naive human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), it has not been possible to derive naive hPSCs without relying on transgene overexpression or chemicals. Here, we show that a transient treatment with Torin1, a selective inhibitor of mTOR, converted hPSCs from primed to naive pluripotency. The naive hPSCs were maintained in the same condition as mESCs in defined media with 2iLI (MEK inhibitor, GSK3b inhibitor, LIF and Insulin). Like mESCs, they exhibited high clonal efficiency, rapid cell proliferation, active mitochondrial respiration, X chromosome activation, DNA hypomethylation, and transcriptomes similar to those of human blastocysts than primed hESCs. Most importantly, the naive hPSCs significantly contributed to mouse embryos when transferred to mouse blastocysts. mTor inhibition induced nuclear translocation of TFE3, a critical transcription factor at the interplay of autophagy and pluripotency. TFE3 with mutated nuclear localization signal blocked the conversion from primed to naive pluripotency. It appears that by mimicking diapause at the cellular level, naive pluripotency in human can be readily attained from primed hPSCs, thus establishing the unified ground state of pluripotency in mammals.
Project description:Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) are in naive pluripotency that represents the ground state of development, from which all cells in the mouse embryo are derived. In contrast, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are in a primed state of pluripotency with many different properties. Despite intense efforts to generate naive human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), it has not been possible to derive naive hPSCs without relying on transgene overexpression or chemicals. Here, we show that a transient treatment with Torin1, a selective inhibitor of mTOR, converted hPSCs from primed to naive pluripotency. The naive hPSCs were maintained in the same condition as mESCs in defined media with 2iLI (MEK inhibitor, GSK3b inhibitor, LIF and Insulin). Like mESCs, they exhibited high clonal efficiency, rapid cell proliferation, active mitochondrial respiration, X chromosome activation, DNA hypomethylation, and transcriptomes similar to those of human blastocysts than primed hESCs. Most importantly, the naive hPSCs significantly contributed to mouse embryos when transferred to mouse blastocysts. mTor inhibition induced nuclear translocation of TFE3, a critical transcription factor at the interplay of autophagy and pluripotency. TFE3 with mutated nuclear localization signal blocked the conversion from primed to naive pluripotency. It appears that by mimicking diapause at the cellular level, naive pluripotency in human can be readily attained from primed hPSCs, thus establishing the unified ground state of pluripotency in mammals.
Project description:Bulk RNA-seq of H9 human embryonic stem cells undergoing conversion from primed to naive pluripotency using the chemical/epigenetic resetting method in tt2iL+Go-based media conditions. The dataset includes three wild-type clones (WT1-3) and two KLF17-null clones (KO1-2) generated through CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing. Samples were collected at day 0 (primed cells in mTeSR1 (StemCell Technologies)), then throughout resetting at day 2 (cells in cRM-1), day 8 (cells in cRM-2+XAV939, immediately prior to the first passage), naive passage 5 (p5), 7 (p7) and 10 (p10) (cells in tt2iL+Go).
Project description:The extent of naive characteriztics of recently reported naive human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) obtained in different naive-permissive media, is unclear. Moreover, these naive hPSCs were mainly derived by conversion from primed hPSCs or by direct derivation from human embryos rather than by somatic cell reprogramming. Here, we derived genetically matched human naive hPSCs by direct reprogramming of fibroblasts as well as primed-to-naive conversion using different naive conditions (NHSM, RSeT, 5iLAF and t2iLGöY). Comprehensive characterization showed that naive hPSCs obtained in these different conditions represent a spectrum of naive characteriztics irrespective of whether they were derived by conversion or reprograming. Importantly, only t2iLGöY hPSCs displayed a similar transcriptome to human cells from the inner cell mass, karyotypic stability and require re-priming for trilineage differentiation. Furthermore, our analyses identified KLF4 as a key reprogramming factor which enables conversion of primed hPSCs into naive t2iLGöY hPSCs. These findings underscore the role that reprogramming factors can play for the derivation of bona fide naive hPSCs and provide a molecular and functional reference for all the analysed conditions, which will help accelerate the downstream applications of naive hiPSCs.
Project description:scRNAseq of day 30 of trophoblast conversion together with naïve and primed hPSCs. Cells were mixed using the following ratio (H9 primed: Sigma primed: H9 naive: Sigma naive: day 30 ASECRiAV conversion = 1:1:1:1:2)
Project description:Although cell therapies require large numbers of quality-controlled hPSCs, existing technologies are limited in their ability to efficiently grow and scale stem cells. We report here that cell-state conversion from primed-to-naïve pluripotency enhances the biomanufacturing of hPSCs. Naïve hPSCs exhibit superior growth kinetics and aggregate formation characteristics in stirred suspension bioreactors compared to their primed counterparts. Moreover, we demonstrate the role of the bioreactor mechanical environment in the maintenance of naïve pluripotency, through transcriptomic enrichment of mechano-sensing signaling for cells in the bioreactor along with a decrease in expression of lineage-specific and primed pluripotency hallmarks. Bioreactor-cultured, naïve hPSCs maintain epigenetic hallmarks of naïve pluripotency, exhibit robust production of naïve pluripotency metabolites, and display reduced expression of primed pluripotency cell surface markers. We also show that these cells retain the ability to undergo targeted differentiation into beating cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes and neural rosettes. They additionally display faster kinetics of teratoma formation compared to their primed counterparts. Naïve bioreactor hPSCs also retain structurally stable chromosomes. Our research corroborates that converting hPSCs to the naïve state enhances hPSC manufacturing and indicates a potentially important role for the bioreactor’s mechanical environment in maintaining naïve pluripotency.
Project description:Overexpression of nuclear receptor 5A1 induces and maintains an intermediate state of conversion between primed and naive pluripotency