Discrimination of Stem Cell Status after Subjecting Cynomolgus Monkey Pluripotent Stem Cells to Naïve Conversion

Experimental animal models have played an indispensable role in the development of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) research. The derivation of high-quality (so-called “true naïve state”) iPSCs of non-human primates enhances their application and safety for human regenerative medicine. Although several attempts have been made to convert human and non-human primate PSCs into a truly naïve state, it is unclear which evaluation methods can discriminate them as being truly naïve. Here we attempted to derive naïve cynomolgus monkey (Cm) (Macaca fascicularis) embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and iPSCs. Several characteristics of naïve Cm ESCs including colony morphology, appearance of naïve-related mRNAs and proteins, leukaemia inhibitory factor dependency, and mitochondrial respiration were confirmed. Next, we generated Cm iPSCs and converted them to a naïve state. Transcriptomic comparison of PSCs with early Cm embryos elucidated the partial achievement (termed naïve-like) of their conversion. When these were subjected to in vitro neural differentiation, enhanced differentiating capacities were observed after naïve-like conversion, but some lines exhibited heterogeneity. The difficulty of achieving contribution to chimeric mouse embryos was also demonstrated. These results suggest that Cm PSCs could ameliorate their in vitro neural differentiation potential even though they could not display true naïve characteristics.