Human NPY/AgRP hypothalamic cell lines for study of obesity susceptibility

Recent data suggests that common genetic risk for metabolic disorders such as obesity may be human-specific and exert effects through the central nervous system. To overcome the limitation of human tissue access for study, we have generated induced human pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)- derived neuronal cultures which recapture many features of hypothalamic neurons within the arcuate nucleus. Here we have comprehensively characterized this model across development and benchmarked these neurons to in vivo events. We also demonstrate their utility in study of obesity risk variants. The dynamic transcriptome across neuronal maturation was examined using microarray and RNAseq methods at 9 time points. K-means clustering of the longitudinal data was conducted to identify co-regulation and miRNA control of biological processes. The transcriptomes were compared to those of 103 samples from 13 brain regions reported in the Genotype-Tissue Expression database (GTEx) using principal components analysis. Genes with proximity to body mass index (BMI)-associated genetic variants were mapped to the developmentally expressed genesets, and enrichment significance was assessed with Fisher’s exact test. The human neuronal cultures have a transcriptional and physiological profile of NPY/AgRP hypothalamic neurons. The neuronal transcriptomes were highly correlated with adult hypothalamus as compared to any other brain region from the GTEx. Also, roughly 25% of the transcripts showed changes in expression across maturation stages and potential co-regulation of biological processes that mirror neuronal development in vivo. These developmentally expressed genes were significantly enriched for genes in proximity to BMI-associated variants. We collected total RNA of two samples at each of the 9 time points, day 0, 10, 25, 35, 45, 55, 75, 95, 115 , from day 0 to 115 during the differentiation and maturation process. Total RNA was isolated using Qiagen RNeasy kit according to the manufacturer’s protocol.