Metabolic phenotyping of healthy and diseased human RPE cells

Metabolic defects in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) underlie many retinal degenerative diseases. This study aims to identify the nutrient requirements of healthy and diseased human RPE cells.

We profiled nutrient utilization of various human RPE cells, including differentiated and dedifferentiated fetal RPE (fRPE), induced pluripotent stem cell derived-RPE (iPSC RPE), Sorsby fundus dystrophy (SFD) patient-derived iPSC RPE, CRISPR-corrected isogenic SFD (cSFD) iPSC RPE, and ARPE-19 cell lines using Biolog Phenotype MicroArray Assays.

Differentiated fRPE cells and healthy iPSC RPE cells can utilize 51 and 48 nutrients respectively, including sugars, intermediates from glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, fatty acids, ketone bodies, amino acids, and dipeptides. However, when fRPE cells lose their epithelial phenotype through dedifferentiation, nutrient utilization becomes restricted to 17 nutrients, primarily sugar and glutamine-related amino acids. SFD RPE cells can utilize 37 nutrients; however, compared to cSFD RPE and healthy iPSC RPE, they are unable to utilize lactate, some TCA cycle intermediates, and short-chain fatty acids. Nonetheless, they show increased utilization of branch-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and BCAA-containing dipeptides. Dedifferentiated ARPE-19 cells grown in traditional culture media cannot utilize lactate and ketone bodies. In contrast, nicotinamide supplementation promotes differentiation towards an epithelial phenotype, restoring the ability to use these nutrients.

Epithelial phenotype confers metabolic flexibility to healthy RPE for utilizing various nutrients. SFD RPE cells have reduced metabolic flexibility, relying on the oxidation of BCAAs. Our findings highlight the potentially important roles of nutrient availability and utilization in RPE differentiation and diseases.