Increased Risk of Genetic and Epigenetic Instability in Human Embryonic Stem Cells Associated with Specific Culture Conditions I

The self-renewal and differentiation capacities of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) make them good sources of cells for cell transplantation therapy, drug development, and studies of cellular differentiation and development. However, the large numbers of cells necessary for many of these applications require extensive expansion of hPSC cultures, a process that has been associated with applications require extensive expansion of hPSC cultures, a process that has been associated with genetic and epigenetic alterations. We have performed a systematic study over more than 100continuous passages to identify characteristics of culture conditions (including passage method, substrate, and media type) that influence the genetic and epigenetic stability and the phenotypic characteristics of hPSCs. The predominant effects we observed were increased genetic instability with enzymatic passage, higher cell proliferation with feeder-free substrate, and variations among cultures in global gene expression and DNA methylation with time in culture. We observed recurrent duplications in two genomic regions that have been noted in earlier studies to be hotspots for duplication in hPSCs, as well as a previously unreported recurrent deletion of the tumor suppressor gene TP53 in all but one of the long-term culture conditions; the exception was the condition using mechanical passaging on feeder layers. The deletion of TP53 is associated with decreased mRNA expression of TP53, as well as alterations in the expression of several other genes in the TP53 pathway, which taken together indicate a decrease in the function of the TP53 pathway. Our results highlight the need for careful assessment of effects of culture conditions on cells intended for clinical therapies.

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Garitaonandia I, Amir H, Boscolo FS, Wambua GK, Schultheisz HL, Sabatini K, Morey R, Waltz S, Wang YC, Tran H, Leonardo TR, Nazor K, Slavin I, Lynch C, Li Y, Coleman R, Gallego Romero I, Altun G, Reynolds D, Dalton S, Parast M, Loring JF, Laurent LC