Urine-Derived Stem Cells Express 571 Neuromuscular Disorders Causing Genes, Making Them a Potential in vitro Model for Rare Genetic DiseasesShow others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: Frontiers in Physiology, E-ISSN 1664-042X, Vol. 12, article id 716471
Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Background: Neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) are a heterogeneous group of genetic diseases, caused by mutations in genes involved in spinal cord, peripheral nerve, neuromuscular junction, and muscle functions. To advance the knowledge of the pathological mechanisms underlying NMDs and to eventually identify new potential drugs paving the way for personalized medicine, limitations regarding the availability of neuromuscular disease-related biological samples, rarely accessible from patients, are a major challenge.</p> & nbsp;</p> Aim: We characterized urinary stem cells (USCs) by in-depth transcriptome and protein profiling to evaluate whether this easily accessible source of patient-derived cells is suitable to study neuromuscular genetic diseases, focusing especially on those currently involved in clinical trials.</p> & nbsp;</p> Methods: The global transcriptomics of either native or MyoD transformed USCs obtained from control individuals was performed by RNA-seq. The expression of 610 genes belonging to 16 groups of disorders () whose mutations cause neuromuscular diseases, was investigated on the RNA-seq output. In addition, protein expression of 11 genes related to NMDs including COL6A, EMD, LMNA, SMN, UBA1, DYNC1H1, SOD1, C9orf72, DYSF, DAG1, and HTT was analyzed in native USCs by immunofluorescence and/or Western blot (WB).</p> & nbsp;</p> Results: RNA-seq profile of control USCs shows that 571 out of 610 genes known to be involved in NMDs, are expressed in USCs. Interestingly, the expression levels of the majority of NMD genes remain unmodified following USCs MyoD transformation. Most genes involved in the pathogenesis of all 16 groups of NMDs are well represented except for channelopathies and malignant hyperthermia related genes. All tested proteins showed high expression values, suggesting consistency between transcription and protein representation in USCs.</p> & nbsp;</p> Conclusion: Our data suggest that USCs are human cells, obtainable by non-invasive means, which might be used as a patient-specific cell model to study neuromuscular disease-causing genes and that they can be likely adopted for a variety of in vitro functional studies such as mutation characterization, pathway identification, and drug screening.</p>
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA , 2021. Vol. 12, article id 716471
Keywords [en]
neuromuscular disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, urine derived stem cells, RNA-seq, western blot (WB), immunofluorescence
National Category
Cell and Molecular Biology Medical Genetics and Genomics Biochemistry Molecular Biology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-305130DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2021.716471ISI: 000716759100001PubMedID: 34744760Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85118623004OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-305130DiVA, id: diva2:1613181
Note
QC 20211122
2021-11-222021-11-222025-02-20Bibliographically approved