Reprogramming-associated aberrant DNA methylation determines hematopoietic differentiation capacity of human induced pluripotent stem cells. Homo sapiens

The variation among induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in their differentiation capacity to specific lineages is frequently attributed to somatic memory. In this study, we compared hematopoietic differentiation capacity of 35 human iPSC lines derived from four different tissues and four embryonic stem cell lines. The analysis revealed that hematopoietic commitment capacity (PSCs to hematopoietic precursors) is correlated with the expression level of the IGF2 gene independent of the iPSC origins. In contrast, maturation capacity (hematopoietic precursors to mature blood) is affected by iPSC origin; blood-derived iPSCs showed the highest capacity. However, some fibroblast-derived iPSCs showed higher capacity than blood-derived clones. Tracking of DNA methylation changes during reprogramming reveals that maturation capacity is highly associated with aberrant DNA methylation acquired during reprogramming, rather than the types of iPSC origins. These data demonstrated that variations in the hematopoietic differentiation capacity of iPSCs are not attributable to somatic memories of their origins. Overall design: Methyl-seq analysis for undifferentiated induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines (n = 21), human dermal fibroblast (HDF, n = 1), human peripheral blood (n = 1), and human keratinocyte (n = 1), and ATAC-seq analysis for 2 iPSC lines and an embryonic stem cell (ESC) line with two different culture conditions. CTCF-ChIP-seq analysis for an ESC line.