Derivation of formative-like pluripotent stem cells from mammalian embryos [RNA-Seq]
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Two phases of pluripotency, naïve and primed, have been captured in vitro and studied in details1. A third formative phase was recently proposed to exist between naïve and primed phases2. Formative pluripotency entails permissiveness for direct primordial germ cell (PGC) induction and competence for blastocyst chimeras, and is characterized by transcriptional and epigenetic features intermediate of naïve and primed pluripotency. To date, however, stable pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) harboring formative features haven’t been derived from early mammalian embryos. Here we develop a method which enabled the derivation and culture of stable formative-like embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from mouse blastocysts. Formative-like mouse ESCs share molecular features characteristic of early post-implantation epiblasts and are competent for PGC-like cell induction and blastocyst chimera formation. The same culture also supported the derivation of ESCs and transgene-free induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from horse blastocysts and fibroblasts, respectively. Horse ESCs/iPSCs transcriptionally resembled mouse formative cells, and could also be directly induced into PGC-like cells. Formative-like horse iPSCs could efficiently chimerize horse, mouse, goat, sheep and pig embryos. Stable formative-like PSCs will be invaluable for studying mammalian pluripotency, and our method may be broadly applicable for the derivation of PGC and chimera competent PSCs from other mammalian species.
ORGANISM(S): Equus ferus Mus musculus Homo sapiens
Project description:Two phases of pluripotency, naïve and primed, have been captured in vitro and studied in details1. A third formative phase was recently proposed to exist between naïve and primed phases2. Formative pluripotency entails permissiveness for direct primordial germ cell (PGC) induction and competence for blastocyst chimeras, and is characterized by transcriptional and epigenetic features intermediate of naïve and primed pluripotency. To date, however, stable pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) harboring formative features haven’t been derived from early mammalian embryos. Here we develop a method which enabled the derivation and culture of stable formative-like embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from mouse blastocysts. Formative-like mouse ESCs share molecular features characteristic of early post-implantation epiblasts and are competent for PGC-like cell induction and blastocyst chimera formation. The same culture also supported the derivation of ESCs and transgene-free induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from horse blastocysts and fibroblasts, respectively. Horse ESCs/iPSCs transcriptionally resembled mouse formative cells, and could also be directly induced into PGC-like cells. Formative-like horse iPSCs could efficiently chimerize horse, mouse, goat, sheep and pig embryos. Stable formative-like PSCs will be invaluable for studying mammalian pluripotency, and our method may be broadly applicable for the derivation of PGC and chimera competent PSCs from other mammalian species.
Project description:The northern white rhinoceros (NWR) is probably the earth’s most endangered mammal. To rescue the functionally extinct species, we aim to employ induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to generate gametes and subsequently embryos in vitro. To elucidate the regulation of pluripotency and differentiation of NWR PSCs, we generated iPSCs from a deceased NWR female using episomal reprogramming, and observed surprising similarities to human PSCs. NWR iPSCs exhibit a broad differentiation potency into the three germ layers and trophoblast, and acquire a naïve-like state of pluripotency, which is pivotal to differentiate PSCs into primordial germ cells (PGCs). Naïve culturing conditions induced a similar expression profile of pluripotency related genes in NWR iPSCs and human ESCs. Furthermore, naïve-like NWR iPSCs displayed increased expression of naïve and PGC marker genes, and a higher integration propensity into developing mouse embryos. As the conversion process was aided by ectopic BCL2 expression, and we observed integration of reprogramming factors, the NWR iPSCs presented here are unsuitable for gamete production. However, the gained insights into the developmental potential of both primed and naïve-like NWR iPSCs are fundamental for in future PGC-specification in order to rescue the species from extinction using cryopreserved somatic cells.
Project description:The pluripotency of mammalian early and late epiblast could be recapitulated by naïve embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and primed epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs), respectively. However, these two states of pluripotency may not be sufficient to reflect the full complexity and developmental potency of the epiblast during mammalian early development. Here we report the establishment of self-renewing formative pluripotent stem cells (fPSCs) which manifest features of epiblast cells poised for gastrulation. fPSCs can be established from different mouse ESCs, pre-/early-gastrula epiblasts and induced PSCs. Similar to pre-/early-gastrula epiblasts, fPSCs show the transcriptomic features of formative pluripotency, which are distinct from naïve ESCs and primed EpiSCs. fPSCs show the unique epigenetic states of E6.5 epiblast, including the super-bivalency of a large set of developmental genes. Just like epiblast cells immediately before gastrulation, fPSCs can efficiently differentiate into three germ layers and primordial germ cells (PGCs) in vitro. Thus, fPSCs highlight the feasibility of using PSCs to explore the development of mammalian epiblast.
Project description:Conventional embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from primates resemble mouse epiblast stem cells, raising an intriguing question regarding whether the naïve pluripotent state resembling mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) exists in primates and how to capture it in vitro. Here we identified several specific signaling modulators that are sufficient to generate rhesus monkey fibroblast-derived iPSCs with the features of naïve pluripotency in terms of growth properties, gene expression profiles, self-renewal signaling, X-reactivation and the potential to generate cross-species chimeric embryos. Interestingly, together with recent reports of naïve human pluripotent stem cells, our findings suggest several conserved signaling pathways shared with rodents and specific to primates, providing significant insights for acquiring naïve pluripotency from other mammal species. In addition, the derivation of rhesus monkey naïve iPSCs also provides a valuable cell source for use in preclinical research and disease modeling. mRNA expression analysis of 4 rhesus monkey naive iPSC lines and 2 primed iPSC lines were examed.
Project description:Expression profiling of Naïve and Primed hESCs using Illumina HT-12 v.4 expression BeadChip We report that over-expression of the transcription factor YAP in male and female human ESCs and iPSCs promotes the generation of naïve PSCs. YAP-induced naïve PSCs have a naïve-specific dome-like colony morphology, rapid clonal growth rate for more than 70 passages, normal karyotype, expression of pluripotency markers and ability to form teratomas. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) can substitute for YAP to generated transgene-free human naïve PSCs. We performed microarray analyses on hESCs and hIPSCs in primed and naïve ESC media and show that YAP overexpressing cells in naïve media (Ying et al 2008, Ludwig et al 2006, Theunnissen 2014) display a distinct naïve-like transcriptional profile and other hallmarks of the naïve state. These results uncover an unexpected role for YAP in the transition to the human naïve state, and provide a platform in which to further dissect this transition and probe early human embryology.
Project description:Human naïve pluripotency state cells can be derived from direct isolation of inner cell mass or primed-to-naïve resetting of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) through different combinations of transcription factors, small molecular inhibitors and growth factors. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been identified to be crucial in diverse biological processes, including pluripotency regulatory circuit of mouse pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), but few are involved in human PSCs’ regulation of pluripotency and naïve pluripotency derivation. This study initially planned to discover more lncRNAs possibly playing significant roles in the regulation of human PSCs’ pluripotency, but accidently identified a lncRNA whose knockdown in human PSCs induced naïve-like pluripotency conversion. The results indicated that knockdown of CCDC144NL-AS1 induces naïve-like state conversion of human PSCs in the absence of additional transcription factors or small molecular inhibitors. CCDC144NL-AS1-KD human PSCs reveal naïve-like pluripotency features, such as elevated expression of naïve pluripotency associated genes, increased developmental capacity, analogous transcriptional profiles to human naïve PSCs, and global reduction of repressive chromatin modification marks. Furthermore, CCDC144NL-AS1-KD human PSCs display inhibition of MAPK (ERK), accumulation of active β-catenin, and upregulation of some LIF/STAT3 target genes, and all of these are concordant with previous reported traits of human naïve PSCs.
Project description:Derivation of naive state of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) in LIF+serum (LS) culture condition is strain dependent, whereas derivation of ground state mESCs is readily possible from all strains tested so far in “2i” culture condition. ESCs can be derived from the post-implantation stage mouse embryos (EpiSCs), showing primed characteristics. In the present study, we characterized and compared the transcriptional profile of naïve, primed and ground state mESCs. Considering the importance of genetic background of mouse model for ESCs derivation in conventional culture conditions, all ESCs lines used in the study were derived from the same strain of mice. We found distinct transcriptional profiles between naive, primed and ground state mESCs. Primed state mESCs exhibit lower expression of pluripotency markers along with higher expression of lineage specific markers compared to naive and ground state mESCs. We also demonstrate that the differentiation propensity of ESCs to specific germ layer varies depending on the pluripotency state of ESCs.
Project description:The DND microRNA-mediated repression inhibitor 1 (DND1) is a conserved RNA binding protein (RBP) and plays an important role in survival and maintenance of primordial germ cells (PGCs) and the development of the male germline in zebrafish and mice. It was shown to be expressed in human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), PGCs, and spermatogonia, but little is known about its specific role in pluripotency and human germline development. Here we use CRISPR/Cas mediated knockout and PGC-like cell (PGCLC) differentiation in human iPSCs to analyse if DND1 (1) plays a role in maintaining pluripotency and (2) in specification of PGCLCs. We generated several clonal lines with biallelic loss of function mutations and analysed their potential to differentiate towards PGCLCs and their gene expression on RNA and protein level via bulk RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry. The generated knockout iPSCs showed no differences in pluripotency gene expression, proliferation nor trilineage differentiation potential, but yielded reduced numbers o PGCLCs compared to their parental iPSCs. RNAseq analysis in PGCLCs showed significantly reduced expression of genes associated with cellular developmental processes and cell differentiation in knockout cells, including known markers for PGCs (NANOS3, SOX17, PRDM1, EPCAM) and naïve pluripotency (TFCP2L, DNMT3L).
Project description:It is now well recognized that human embryonic stem cells (hESCs)1 closely resemble mouse epiblast stem cells (mEpiSCs)2-5 exhibiting primed pluripotency unlike mouse ESCs (mESCs) which acquire a naïve pluripotent state4-8. Efforts have been made to trigger naïve pluripotency in hESCs9-11 for subsequent unbiased lineage-specific differentiation, a common conundrum faced by primed pluripotent hESCs due to heterogeneity in gene expression existing within and between hESC lines12. We report here a novel culture medium facilitating rapid induction of naïve pluripotency in established hESCs. Our medium also allows derivation of naïve mESCs from blastocyst stage which has not been shown earlier. The established naïve hESCs could survive long-term single cell passaging, maintain a normal karyotype, exhibit upregulation of naïve pluripotency genes and were dependent on signaling pathways similar to naïve mESCs. Also, they undergo global DNA demethylation, cluster together with previously described naïve hESCs13 and show a distinctive long non-coding RNA profile. Collectively, we demonstrate an alternate route to capture naïve pluripotency in hESCs which is fast, reproducible, can be employed to derive naïve mESCs and can induce efficient differentiation. Three primed and matching naive human embryonic stem cell lines were profiled in duplo.
Project description:Pluripotency can be maintained in the naïve state through manipulation of ERK and WNT signalling (2i), shielding embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from inductive cues. Alternatively, inhibiting CDK8/19 (CDK8/19i), a repressor of the Mediator co-activator complex, directly stimulates super-enhancer activity, and was recently shown to stabilize cells in a functional state that resembles naïve pluripotency. Naïve ESCs exhibit important epigenetic, transcriptional and metabolic features. However, our understanding on how these regulatory layers are inter-connected to promote the naive state is in progress. To fill this gap, here we used mass spectrometry to describe the dynamic molecular events (i.e. phosphoproteome, proteome and metabolome) executed by 2i and CDK8/19i, as they transition cell identity into naïve pluripotency. We observed rapid proteomic reprogramming, revealing widespread commonalities, and some important differences, between these two approaches, suggesting a largely over-lapping mechanism. CDK8/19i acts directly on the control of the transcriptional machinery, which elicits a rapid and direct activation of key identity genes including those that maintain the naïve program. Additional molecular changes in 2i are achieved by phosphorylation of critical downstream effectors that reinforce the naïve transcriptional circuitry while repressing factors from the more-differentiated formative and primed states. Comparing transcriptomic and proteomic changes, we found that post-transcriptional de-repression is a major feature of naïve pluripotency conferred by both 2i and CDK8/19i, and this may support the enhanced mitochondrial capacity of naive cells. Furthermore, at the level of metabolome, while 2i- and CDK8/19i-treated cells share similar aspects in one-carbon metabolism and beta-oxidation, in other regards they are divergent, a feature which may explain their differences in DNA methylation. These datasets provide a valuable resource for exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying pluripotency and cell identity transitions.