Alleviation of telomere dysfunction and mitochondria defects of telomerase deficient somatic cells by reprogramming

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent two major approaches for somatic cell reprogramming. However, little attention has been paid to the ability of these two strategies in rejuvenating cells from donors with aging associated syndrome. Here, we utilized telomerase deficient (Terc-/-) mice to probe this question. SCNT-derived embryonic stem cells (ntESCs) and iPSCs were successfully derived from second generation (G2) and third generation (G3) of Terc-/- mice, and ntESCs showed better differentiation potential and self-renewal ability. Telomeres lengthened extensively in cloned embryos while remained or slightly increased in the process of iPSCs induction. Furthermore, G3 ntESCs exhibited improvement of telomere capping function as evidenced by decreased signal free ends and chromosome end-to-end fusion events. In contrast, there was a further decline of telomere capping function in G3 iPSCs. In addition to telomere dysfunction, mitochondria function was severely impaired in G3 iPSCs as evidenced by oxygen consumption rate (OCR) decline, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and dramatically increased mitochondria genome mutations while these deficiencies were greatly mitigated in G3 ntESCs. Our data proved the principle that SCNT-mediated reprogramming appears more superior than transcription factors induced reprogramming in terms of the resetting of telomere quality and mitochondria function, and thus, providing valuable information for further improvement of transcription factors mediated reprogramming.

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Le R, Kou Z, Jiang Y, Li M, Huang B, Liu W, Li H, Kou X, He W, Rudolph KL, Ju Z, Gao S