Global transcriptional analysis and genome-wide analysis of chromatin state in extended pluripotent stem cells, primed pluripotent stem cells, and naïve pluripotent stem cells
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ABSTRACT: This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Project description:Among all known cultured stem cell types, pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) sit atop the landscape of developmental potency and are characterized by their unrestricted developmental potential, able to generate all cell types of an adult organism. However, PSCs show limited contribution to the extraembryonic (ExEm) tissues, in particular, those giving rise to the placenta in vivo. To date, it remains unknown whether stem cells with both embryonic and extraembryonic developmental potency can be captured and maintained in vitro. Here, we identify a new chemical cocktail that allows for the generation of stem cells with extended developmental potency from mouse and human, designated as extended pluripotent stem (EPS) cells, which is capable of chimerizing both embryonic and extraembryonic tissues. Importantly, a single mouse EPS (mEPS) cell shows widespread contribution to both embryonic and extraembryonic lineages in chimeric mouse conceptuses at late-gestation stages, and permits generation of high-grade germline competent chimeras as well as single EPS-derived viable mice by tetraploid complementation. Furthermore, human EPS (hEPS) cells contribute to embryonic and extraembryonic tissues in interspecies chimeric mouse conceptuses. Compared to known PSCs, EPS cells show unique gene modules that upregulate in embryonic cells from early preimplantation development. Further analysis shows that PARP1 inhibition is required for maintaining EPS potency. Our findings constitute a first step towards capturing pluripotent stem cells with extraembryonic developmental potentials in culture, and open new avenues for generating mammalian PSCs with robust chimeric competency for basic and translational research.
Project description:Global transcriptional analysis and genome-wide analysis of chromatin state in extended pluripotent stem cells, primed pluripotent stem cells, and naïve pluripotent stem cells
Project description:Genome-wide analysis of chromatin state in extended pluripotent stem cells, primed pluripotent stem cells, and naïve pluripotent stem cells
Project description:All mammals develop from embryonic founder cells with the ability to generate all of the differentiated cells that constitute the organism. Capture of stem cells with such developmental potential in vitro has been a major challenge in stem cell biology. Here, we show that a chemical cocktail enables the derivation of a new stem cell type from both mice and humans, designated as extended pluripotent stem (EPS) cells. A single human or mouse EPS cell is able to contribute to both embryonic and extraembryonic lineages in inter- and intra-species chimeric mouse conceptuses respectively. Compared to known pluripotent stem cells, EPS cells show upregulation of gene modules marking embryonic cells from early preimplantation development. Further analysis shows that PARP1 inhibition is required for maintaining EPS potency. Our findings constitute a first step towards capturing authentic mammalian totipotency in vitro, and open new avenues for basic and translational research.
Project description:Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represent a promising platform for studying embryonic development, and different states of pluripotency reflect the different stages of embryo development. Here, we successfully converted three in-house-derived primed hPSC lines (H10, H24, and iPS) to a naive state and an expanded pluripotent stem cell (EPS) state. Primed, naive and EPS cells displayed state-specific morphologies and expressed pluripotent markers. The expression of SSEA4 and TRA-1-60 was downregulated in the conversion process. The H3K27me3 expression level also decreased, indicating that global methylation was reduced and that the X chromosome started to reactivate. RNA-sequencing analysis results revealed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were significantly enriched in both naive hPSCs and EPS cells when compared to the primed state. However, imprinted gene expression barely changed before and after state reversion. Gene ontology (GO) analyses showed that the upregulated DEGs were mostly enriched in RNA processing, DNA replication and repair, and regulation of cell cycle process, while downregulated DEGs were related to extracellular adhesion and various tissue developmental processes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that EPS cells were enriched in the PI3K-Akt and Wnt signaling pathways. Analysis of the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network between primed, naive hPSCs and EPS cells revealed that hsa-miR-424-5p, has-miR-16-5p, has-miR-27b-3p, has-miR-29c-3p, and KCNQ1OT1 were crucial nodes with high degrees of connectivity. Our work may represent new insight into the intrinsic molecular features of different hPSC states.
Project description:Both pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs), established from preimplantation murine blastocysts, and epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs), established from postimplantation embryos, can self-renew in culture or differentiate into each of the primary germ layers. While the core transcription factors (TFs) OCT4, SOX2, and NANOG are expressed in both cell types, the gene expression profiles and other features suggest that ESCs and EpiSCs reflect distinct developmental maturation stages of the epiblast in vivo. Accordingly, "naïve" or "ground state" ESCs resemble cells of the inner cell mass, whereas "primed" EpiSCs resemble cells of the postimplantation egg cylinder. To gain insight into the relationship between naïve and primed pluripotent cells, and of each of these pluripotent states to that of nonpluripotent cells, we have used FAIRE-seq to generate a comparative atlas of the accessible chromatin regions within ESCs, EpiSCs, multipotent neural stem cells, and mouse embryonic fibroblasts. We find a distinction between the accessible chromatin patterns of pluripotent and somatic cells that is consistent with the highly related phenotype of ESCs and EpiSCs. However, by defining cell-specific and shared regions of open chromatin, and integrating these data with published gene expression and ChIP analyses, we also illustrate unique features of the chromatin of naïve and primed cells. Functional studies suggest that multiple stage-specific enhancers regulate ESC- or EpiSC-specific gene expression, and implicate auxiliary TFs as important modulators for stage-specific activation by the core TFs. Together these observations provide insights into the chromatin structure dynamics accompanying transitions between these pluripotent states.
Project description:Naïve human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) resemble the embryonic epiblast at an earlier time-point in development than conventional, 'primed' hPSC. We present a comprehensive miRNA profiling of naïve-to-primed transition in hPSC, a process recapitulating aspects of early in vivo embryogenesis. We identify miR-143-3p and miR-22-3p as markers of the naïve state and miR-363-5p, several members of the miR-17 family, miR-302 family as primed markers. We uncover that miR-371-373 are highly expressed in naïve hPSC. MiR-371-373 are the human homologs of the mouse miR-290 family, which are the most highly expressed miRNAs in naïve mouse PSC. This aligns with the consensus that naïve hPSC resemble mouse naive PSC, showing that the absence of miR-371-373 in conventional hPSC is due to cell state rather than a species difference.
Project description:The placenta is a transient but important multifunctional organ crucial for healthy pregnancy for both mother and fetus. Nevertheless, limited access to human placenta samples and the paucity of a proper in vitro model system have hampered our understanding of the mechanisms underlying early human placental development and placenta-associated pregnancy complications. To overcome these constraints, we established a simple procedure with a short-term treatment of bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) in trophoblast stem cell culture medium (TSCM) to convert human primed pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) to trophoblast stem-like cells (TSLCs). These TSLCs show not only morphology and global gene expression profiles comparable to bona fide human trophoblast stem cells (TSCs) but also long-term self-renewal capacity with bipotency that allows the cells to differentiate into functional extravillous trophoblasts (EVT) and syncytiotrophoblasts (ST). These indicate that TSLCs are equivalent to genuine human TSCs. Our data suggest a straightforward approach to make human TSCs directly from preexisting primed PSCs and provide a valuable opportunity to study human placenta development and pathology from patients with placenta-related diseases.
Project description:Human trophoblast stem cells (hTSCs) are useful for studying human placenta development and diseases, but primed human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) routinely cultured in most laboratories do not support hTSC derivation. Here, we present a protocol to derive hTSCs directly from primed hPSCs. This approach, containing two strategies either with or without bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4), provides a simple and accessible tool for deriving hTSCs to study placenta development and disease modeling without ethical limitations or reprogramming process. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wei et al. (2021).