β-Globin-Expressing Definitive Erythroid Progenitor Cells Generated from Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Sacs

Human embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells represent a potential alternative source for red blood cell (RBC) transfusion. When ES cell-derived erythroid cells are generated using embryoid bodies, these cells predominantly express embryonic type ε-globin, with lesser fetal type γ-globin and small amounts of adult type β-globin; however, no β-globin expression is detected in iPS cell-derived erythroid cells. Recently, the ES cell-derived sac (ES sac) was reported to express hemangioblast markers and could generate functional platelets (Takayama, Blood. 2008). We previously demonstrated that erythroid cells were also efficiently generated via the ES sac (2013 ASH). We extend this work to evaluate globin expression in ES sac-derived erythroid cells.

We generated ES sacs from human H1 ES or iPS cells using VEGF for 15 days, as previously described. The spherical cells within ES sacs were harvested and cultured on OP9 feeder cells for 2 days, and the suspension cells were differentiated into erythroid cells using human erythroid massive amplification culture for 13 days (Blood cells Mol Dis. 2002). The globin types expressed in erythroid cells were evaluated by RT-qPCR and hemoglobin electrophoresis.

When hematopoietic cell-stimulating cytokines (SCF, FLT3L, TPO, IL3, EPO, and BMP4) were added in ES sac cultures on day 9-15, we observed 1.4-fold greater amounts of GPA+ erythroid cells (p<0.05) and 1.3-fold lower ε-globin expression in ES sac-derived erythroid cells (p<0.05), suggesting that cytokine stimulation might induce more hematopoietic/stem progenitor cells (HSPC) which can be differentiated to γ- or β-globin-expressing erythroid cells. Thus, we hypothesized that the ES sac contains both primitive and definitive erythroid progenitor cells capable of ε-globin-expression or γ- or β-globin-expression upon differentiation; respectively, and that these progenitors are selectable based upon surface markers of erythroid progenitor cells or HSPCs.

To investigate whether primitive erythropoiesis is switched to definitive erythropoiesis during ES sac maturation, we evaluated spherical cells within the ES sac on day 9, 12, 15, and 18 after ES sac culture. A high percentage of GPA+ erythroid cells (29.2±3.7%) were observed on as early as day9. At that time point, almost no CD34+CD45+ HSPCs were present; however, the number increased upon further ES sac maturation until day 15 (6.8±1.6%). Cells further differentiated in erythroid culture had lower ε-globin expression and higher β-globin expression (up to 13.8±1.5%) when harvested from the ES sac at later time points. These data suggest that more matured ES sacs favor less primitive erythropoiesis and more definitive erythropoiesis.

On day 15, the ES sacs contained a high percentage of GPA+(CD34-) erythroid cells (68.7±4.0%) and relatively lower amounts of CD34+(GPA-) HSPCs (16.7±2.1%). Therefore, we separated GPA+ and GPA- spherical cells from ES sac by magnetic selection before further erythroid differentiation, which resulted in higher ε-globin expression (43.0±16.6% vs 4.4±1.2%, p<0.01) and lower β-globin expression (7.6±5.3x10e-7% vs 19.8±2.7%, p<0.01) from the GPA+ cell fraction. In contrast, after erythroid differentiation from CD34+ or CD34- sorted spherical cells, lower ε-globin expression (3.7±0.3% vs 17.1±0.9%, p<0.01) and higher β-globin expression (17.4±0.7 % vs 0.9±0.4 %, p<0.01) were observed from the CD34+ cell fraction. These data suggest that the ES sac contains both primitive erythroid progenitor cells in the CD34- or GPA+ cell fraction and definitive erythroid progenitor cells in the CD34+ or GPA- cell fraction.

In addition, iPS sac-derived erythroid cells were generated from 2 clones of fibroblast-derived iPS cells, which demonstrated 9.0±2.6% (clone #1) and 7.3±3.7% (clone #2) of β-globin expression. These data demonstrate that similar to ES sac-derived erythroid cells, iPS cell-derived erythroid cells can produce β-globin when differentiated from iPS sacs.

In conclusion, we demonstrate that human ES and iPS cells can generate both primitive and definitive erythroid progenitor cells when differentiated in ES/iPS sac. CD34 or GPA discriminates between primitive and definitive erythroid progenitor cells in ES sac. The presented differentiation and selection strategy represent an important step to develop in vitro RBC production system from pluripotent stem cells.