An induced pluripotent stem cell model for ataxia telangiectasia

The difficulty associated with generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from patients with chromosomal instability syndromes suggests the cellular DNA damage response poses a barrier to reprogramming. Here we demonstrate that fibroblasts from patients with ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) can be reprogrammed to bona-fide iPSC, albeit at a reduced efficiency. A-T iPSC display defective radiation-induced signaling, radiosensitivity and cell cycle checkpoint defects. Bioinformatic analysis of gene expression in the A-T iPSC identifies abnormalities in DNA damage signaling pathways as well as changes in mitochondrial and pentose phosphate pathways. A-T iPSC can be differentiated into functional neurons and thus represent a suitable model system to investigate A-T associated neurodegeneration. Collectively our data show that iPSC can be generated from a chromosomal instability syndrome and that these cells can be used to discover early developmental consequences of ATM deficiency, such as altered mitochondrial function, that may be relevant to A-T pathogenesis and amenable to therapeutic intervention. Three different cell types: fibroblasts, human embyronic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells with heterozygote, homozygote A-T compared to normal samples.