Tracking of epigenetic changes during hematopoietic differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells

Differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) toward hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) raises high hopes for disease modeling, drug screening, and cellular therapy. Various differentiation protocols have been established to generate iPSC-derived HPCs (iHPCs) that resemble their primary counterparts in morphology and immunophenotype, whereas a systematic epigenetic comparison was yet elusive.

In this study, we compared genome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm) patterns of iHPCs with various different hematopoietic subsets. After 20 days of in vitro differentiation, cells revealed typical hematopoietic morphology, CD45 expression, and colony-forming unit (CFU) potential. DNAm changes were particularly observed in genes that are associated with hematopoietic differentiation. On the other hand, the epigenetic profiles of iHPCs remained overall distinct from natural HPCs. Furthermore, we analyzed if additional co-culture for 2 weeks with syngenic primary mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) or iPSC-derived MSCs (iMSCs) further supports epigenetic maturation toward the hematopoietic lineage. Proliferation of iHPCs and maintenance of CFU potential was enhanced upon co-culture. However, DNAm profiles support the notion that additional culture expansion with stromal support did not increase epigenetic maturation of iHPCs toward natural HPCs.

Differentiation of iPSCs toward the hematopoietic lineage remains epigenetically incomplete. These results substantiate the need to elaborate advanced differentiation regimen while DNAm profiles provide a suitable measure to track this process.