Pathogenic mutations involving DNA repeat expansions are responsible for over 20 different neuronal and neuromuscular diseases. All result from expanded tracts of repetitive DNA sequences (mostly microsatellites) that become unstable beyond a critical length when transmitted across generations. Nearly all are inherited as autosomal dominant conditions and are typically associated with anticipation. Pathologic unstable repeat expansions can be classified according to their length, repeat sequence, gene location and underlying pathologic mechanisms. This review summarizes the current contribution of mutant pluripotent stem cells (diseased human embryonic stem cells and patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells) to the research of unstable repeat pathologies by focusing on particularly large unstable noncoding expansions. Among this class of disorders are Fragile X syndrome and Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome, myotonic dystrophy type 1 and myotonic dystrophy type 2, Friedreich ataxia and C9 related amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and/or frontotemporal dementia, Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy and potentially more. Common features that are typical to this subclass of conditions are RNA toxic gain-of-function, epigenetic loss-of-function, toxic repeat-associated non-ATG translation and somatic instability. For each mechanism we summarize the currently available stem cell based models, highlight how they contributed to better understanding of the related mechanism, and discuss how they may be utilized in future investigations.
Keywords: Disease modeling; Epigenetics; Human embryonic stem cells; Patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells; RNA toxicity; Repeat somatic instability; Unstable repeat associated disorders; repeat-associated non-ATG translation.