CDK8/19 Inhibition Plays an Important Role in Pancreatic β-cell Induction from Human IPSCs

Overview

Journal Stem Cell Res Ther

Publisher Biomed Central

Date 2023 Jan 4

PMID 36600289

Authors

Kensuke Sakuma

Noriko Tsubooka-Yamazoe

Kiyohiro Hashimoto

Nozomu Sakai

Shinya Asano

Saori Watanabe-Matsumoto

Takeshi Watanabe

Bunnai Saito

Hirokazu Matsumoto

Hikaru Ueno

Ryo Ito

Taro Toyoda

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Transplantation of differentiated cells from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) holds great promise for clinical treatments. Eliminating the risk factor of malignant cell transformation is essential for ensuring the safety of such cells. This study was aimed at assessing and mitigating mutagenicity that may arise during the cell culture process in the protocol of pancreatic islet cell (iPIC) differentiation from hiPSCs.

Methods: We evaluated the mutagenicity of differentiation factors used for hiPSC-derived pancreatic islet-like cells (iPICs). We employed Ames mutagenicity assay, flow cytometry analysis, immunostaining, time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based (TR-FRET) cell-free dose-response assays, single-cell RNA-sequencing and in vivo efficacy study.

Results: We observed a mutagenic effect of activin receptor-like kinase 5 inhibitor II (ALK5iII). ALK5iII is a widely used β-cell inducer but no other tested ALK5 inhibitors induced β-cells. We obtained kinase inhibition profiles and found that only ALK5iII inhibited cyclin-dependent kinases 8 and 19 (CDK8/19) among all ALK5 inhibitors tested. Consistently, CDK8/19 inhibitors efficiently induced β-cells in the absence of ALK5iII. A combination treatment with non-mutagenic ALK5 inhibitor SB431542 and CDK8/19 inhibitor senexin B afforded generation of iPICs with in vitro cellular composition and in vivo efficacy comparable to those observed with ALK5iII.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest a new risk mitigation approach for cell therapy and advance our understanding of the β-cell differentiation mechanism.

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