Functions of OGDH in primed human embryonic stem cells.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can self-renew infinitely, or differentiate into the three germ layer lineages in vitro with certain cues, holding great promise to model early human embryo development ex vivo.It is wildly accepted that hESCs take advantage of both glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration to favor the naïve pluripotency, while prefer glycolysis to support the primed pluripotency. Thus, the function of mitochondrial respiration in primed hESCs has been underestimated for a long time, and has not been fully understood yet. Herein, we report that the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production rate is comparable between mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis, suggesting that mitoATP serves as one of the major sources of the ATP pool in primed hESCs. Next, we constructed a OGDH knockdown cell line whose ability of mitochondrial respiration was impired. Of note, OGDH deficiency led to the exit of primed pluripotency accompanied by cell death.Collectively, the current study unveils that OGDH acts as a key regulator to fine-tune the abundance of TCA cycle metabolites to ensure the mitochondrial respiration activity in primed hESCs, and highlights the pivotal roles of mitochondrial respiration in terms of ATP production and the maintenance of primed pluripotency. Overall design: There are 9 samples which are WT and OGDH knockdown cell samples upon Dox induction for 4 days as well as 5 days.These group of samples all have three replicates.