Comment on Carrasco et al. Spatial Environment Affects HNF4A Mutation-Specific Proteome Signatures and Cellular Morphology in hiPSC-Derived β-Like Cells. Diabetes 2022;71:862–869

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are a valuable tool for the study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie different types of diabetes. However, one pitfall of hPSCs is that genomic aberrations can develop during the reprogramming process as a result of gene editing or simply during extended cell culture (1). Some of these aberrations, such as trisomy 1, hamper embryonic development and lead to elimination of the fetus (2). Such detrimental aberrations acquired in hPSCs can cause genetic imbalance, thus affecting cellular identity and function. Therefore, given the fatal phenotypes observed in their in  vivo manifestations, the use of hPSC lines that acquire such fatal genomic aberrations in disease modeling studies must be prevented.
Source: Diabetes - Category: Endocrinology Source Type: research