Correlation Between Genetic Abnormalities in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derivatives and Abnormal Tissue Formation in Tumorigenicity Tests

• DOI: 10.1093/stcltm/szac014
• Publication Date: 2022-03-08T20:13:36Z
• Authors: Takako Yamamoto; Yoji Sato; Satoshi Yasuda; Masayuki Shikamura; Takashi Tamura; Chiemi Takenaka; Naoko Takasu; Masaki Nomura; Hiromi Dohi; Masayo Takahashi; Michiko Mandai; Yonehiro Kanemura; Masaya Nakamura; Hideyuki Okano; Shin Kawamata
• Keywords: Pluripotent Stem Cells; Mice; DNA Copy Number Variations; Carcinogenicity Tests; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells; Mutation; Animals; Cellular Reprogramming; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; 3. Good health

Abstract Cell therapy using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derivatives may result in abnormal tissue generation because the cells undergo numerous cycles of mitosis before clinical application, potentially increasing the accumulation of genetic abnormalities. Therefore, genetic tests may predict abnormal tissue formation after transplantation. Here, we administered iPSC derivatives with or without single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and deletions in cancer-related genes with various genomic copy number variant (CNV) profiles into immunodeficient mice and examined the relationships between mutations and abnormal tissue formation after transplantation. No positive correlations were found between the presence of SNVs/deletions and the formation of abnormal tissues; the overall predictivity was 29%. However, a copy number higher than 3 was correlated, with an overall predictivity of 86%. Furthermore, we found CNV hotspots at 14q32.33 and 17q12 loci. Thus, CNV analysis may predict abnormal tissue formation after transplantation of iPSC derivatives and reduce the number of tumorigenicity tests.