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Human embryonic stem cells commonly display large mitochondrial DNA deletions

Nature Biotechnology volume 31, pages 20–23 (2013)Cite this article

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Mitochondria play an important role in early embryogenesis and contribute to the unique biology of stem cells. Undifferentiated human and mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) contain relatively few spherical and immature mitochondria, similar to those in human and other mammalian preimplantation embryos1. The number and maturity of mitochondria increases upon differentiation, concurrent with the switch from glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) for energy production1. Conversely, human somatic mitochondria undergo morphological and functional changes during reprogramming to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)2, with a shift from OXPHOS to glycolysis. Furthermore, attenuating mitochondrial function in undifferentiated human (h)ESCs increases the mRNA levels of the pluripotency genes NANOG, POU5F1 (OCT4) and SOX2, compromises the cells' differentiation potential and increases the number of persisting tumorigenic cells after differentiation3.

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Figure 1: Results for seven control samples and three passages of the hESC line VUB01.
Figure 2: Representative results of the different types of analysis carried out in this study.
Figure 3: Analysis of three hESC lines before and after differentiation to osteogenic progenitor–like cells of the mesoderm lineage (OPLC); lung-epithelial tissue from the endoderm lineage (LET); or embryoid bodies (EB).

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge their colleagues from the human embryonic stem cell laboratory for the derivation and culture of the cell lines. This work was supported by the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) Vlaanderen) and the Methusalem grant (L.V.H.) of the Research Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. C.S. is a postdoctoral fellow at the FWO Vlaanderen.

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  1. Lindsey Van Haute and Claudia Spits: These authors equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Group Reproduction and Genetics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Jette, Brussels, Belgium

    Lindsey Van Haute, Claudia Spits, Mieke Geens, Sara Seneca & Karen Sermon

  2. Centre for Medical Genetics, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Jette, Brussels, Belgium

    Sara Seneca

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  1. Lindsey Van Haute
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  2. Claudia Spits
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  3. Mieke Geens
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  4. Sara Seneca
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Correspondence to Lindsey Van Haute.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Van Haute, L., Spits, C., Geens, M. et al. Human embryonic stem cells commonly display large mitochondrial DNA deletions. Nat Biotechnol 31, 20–23 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2473

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