Metabolomic and Transcriptional Analyses Reveal Atmospheric Oxygen During Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell...

The transition to pluripotency invokes profound metabolic restructuring; however, reprogramming is accompanied by the retention of somatic cell metabolic and epigenetic memory. Modulation of metabolism during reprogramming has been shown to improve reprogramming efficiency, yet it is not known how metabolite availability during reprogramming affects the physiology of resultant induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Metabolic analyses of iPSCs generated under either physiological (5%; P-iPSC) or atmospheric (20%; A-iPSC) oxygen conditions revealed that they retained aspects of somatic cell metabolic memory and failed to regulate carbohydrate metabolism with A-iPSC acquiring different metabolic characteristics. A-iPSC exhibited a higher mitochondrial membrane potential and were unable to modulate oxidative metabolism in response to oxygen challenge, contrasting with P-iPSC. RNA-seq analysis highlighted that A-iPSC displayed transcriptomic instability and a reduction in telomere length. Consequently, inappropriate modulation of metabolism by atmospheric oxygen during reprogramming significantly impacts the resultant A-iPSC metabolic and transcriptional landscape. Furthermore, retention of partial somatic metabolic memory in P-iPSC derived under physiological oxygen suggests that metabolic reprogramming remains incomplete. As the metabolome is a regulator of the epigenome, these observed perturbations of iPSC metabolism will plausibly have downstream effects on cellular function and physiology, both during and following differentiation, and highlight the need to optimize nutrient availability during the reprogramming process. Stem Cells 2019;37:1042-1056.