Lipid Deprivation Induces a Stable, Naive-to-Primed Intermediate State of Pluripotency in Human PSCs

Cell Stem Cell. 2019 Jul 3;25(1):120-136.e10. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2019.05.001. Epub 2019 May 30.

Abstract

Current challenges in capturing naive human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) suggest that the factors regulating human naive versus primed pluripotency remain incompletely defined. Here we demonstrate that the widely used Essential 8 minimal medium (E8) captures hPSCs at a naive-to-primed intermediate state of pluripotency expressing several naive-like developmental, bioenergetic, and epigenomic features despite providing primed-state-sustaining growth factor conditions. Transcriptionally, E8 hPSCs are marked by activated lipid biosynthesis and suppressed MAPK/TGF-β gene expression, resulting in endogenous ERK inhibition. These features are dependent on lipid-free culture conditions and are lost upon lipid exposure, whereas short-term pharmacological ERK inhibition restores naive-to-primed intermediate traits even in the presence of lipids. Finally, we identify de novo lipogenesis as a common transcriptional signature of E8 hPSCs and the pre-implantation human epiblast in vivo. These findings implicate exogenous lipid availability in regulating human pluripotency and define E8 hPSCs as a stable, naive-to-primed intermediate (NPI) pluripotent state.

Keywords: differential human pluripotent states; endogenous ERK inhibition; lipid metabolism; metabolic regulation of cell identity; metabolism and epigenetics; metabolism and pluripotency; naive-to-primed intermediate pluripotency; pluripotency regulation through lipids.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Blastocyst / cytology*
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Culture Media, Serum-Free
  • Embryonic Stem Cells
  • Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases / metabolism
  • Germ Layers / cytology*
  • Humans
  • Lipid Metabolism
  • Pluripotent Stem Cells / physiology*
  • Signal Transduction
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta / metabolism

Substances

  • Culture Media, Serum-Free
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta
  • Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases