Cell therapies using human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived nephron progenitor cells (NPCs) are expected to ameliorate acute kidney injury (AKI). However, using hiPSC-derived NPCs clinically is a challenge because hiPSCs themselves are tumorigenic. LIN28A, ESRG, CNMD and SFRP2 transcripts have been used as a marker of residual hiPSCs for a variety of cell types undergoing clinical trials. In this study, by reanalyzing public databases, we found a baseline expression of LIN28A, ESRG, CNMD and SFRP2 in hiPSC-derived NPCs and several other cell types, suggesting LIN28A, ESRG, CNMD and SFRP2 are not always reliable markers for iPSC detection. As an alternative, we discovered a lncRNA marker gene, MIR302CHG, among many known and unknown iPSC markers, as highly differentially expressed between hiPSCs and NPCs, by RNA sequencing and quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses. Using MIR302CHG as an hiPSC marker, we constructed two assay methods, a combination of magnetic bead-based enrichment and qRT-PCR and digital droplet PCR alone, to detect a small number of residual hiPSCs in NPC populations. The use of these in vitro assays could contribute to patient safety in treatments using hiPSC-derived cells.
Copyright: © 2022 Tsujimoto et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.