MicroRNA characterization in equine induced pluripotent stem cells

PLoS One. 2018 Dec 3;13(12):e0207074. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207074. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Cell reprogramming has been well described in mouse and human cells. The expression of specific microRNAs has demonstrated to be essential for pluripotent maintenance and cell differentiation, but not much information is available in domestic species. We aim to generate horse iPSCs, characterize them and evaluate the expression of different microRNAs (miR-302a,b,c,d, miR-205, miR-145, miR-9, miR-96, miR-125b and miR-296). Two equine iPSC lines (L2 and L3) were characterized after the reprogramming of equine fibroblasts with the four human Yamanaka's factors (OCT-4/SOX-2/c-MYC/KLF4). The pluripotency of both lines was assessed by phosphatase alkaline activity, expression of OCT-4, NANOG and REX1 by RT-PCR, and by immunofluorescence of OCT-4, SOX-2 and c-MYC. In vitro differentiation to embryo bodies (EBs) showed the capacity of the iPSCs to differentiate into ectodermal, endodermal and mesodermal phenotypes. MicroRNA analyses resulted in higher expression of the miR-302 family, miR-9 and miR-96 in L2 and L3 vs. fibroblasts (p<0.05), as previously shown in human pluripotent cells. Moreover, downregulation of miR-145 and miR-205 was observed. After differentiation to EBs, higher expression of miR-96 was observed in the EBs respect to the iPSCs, and also the expression of miR-205 was induced but only in the EB-L2. In addition, in silico alignments of the equine microRNAs with mRNA targets suggested the ability of miR-302 family to regulate cell cycle and epithelial mesenchymal transition genes, miR-9 and miR-96 to regulate neural determinant genes and miR-145 to regulate pluripotent genes, similarly as in humans. In conclusion, we could obtain equine iPSCs, characterize them and determine for the first time the expression level of microRNAs in equine pluripotent cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Differentiation / genetics
  • Fibroblasts / cytology
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Horses*
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / cytology
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / metabolism*
  • Kruppel-Like Factor 4
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • Nuclear Transfer Techniques

Substances

  • KLF4 protein, human
  • Klf4 protein, mouse
  • Kruppel-Like Factor 4
  • MicroRNAs

Grants and funding

This work was possible thanks to the following grants: FONCYT: PICT-2011-1927, PICT-2015-1469, PICT-2015-1708 and PID-2014-0052; CONICET: PIP2015-2017. The Fundacion FLENI, Fundacion Perez Companc also contributed financially to the realization of this work. Author Gabriel Vichera is employed by Kheiron Biotech. Kheiron Biotech provided support in the form of salary for author GV and participated in the collection of data but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific role of this author is articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.