9194 Generation of a Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Line From a Patient With Hypopituitarism and a Novel Nonsense Variant in FOXA2

Abstract

Disclosure: M.A. Camilletti: None. G.T. Chirino Felker: None. G. Amin: None. S. Castañeda: None. F. Zabalegui: None. C. Romano Florit: None. A. Waisman: None. M. Ciaccio: None. M.I. Di Palma: None. E. Vaiani: None. A. Belgorosky: None. S.G. Miriuka: None. L.N. Moro: None. M.I. Perez-Millan: None.

Congenital Hypopituitarism (CH) is a genetically complex disease characterized by one or more pituitary hormone deficiencies. Forkhead Box A2 (FOXA2, 600288) is a pioneer transcription factor associated with development of multiple tissues in humans and mice. Heterozygous loss of function mutations in FOXA2 were recently shown to cause CH with hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia, but little is known about the molecular mechanism of FOXA2 action during pituitary development. We identified a novel, heterozygous nonsense variant in FOXA2 (c.686C<A; p.S229X) in a patient diagnosed with GH deficiency at 1.7 years of age, with anterior lobe hypoplasia and absent pituitary stalk, asymptomatic hypoglycemia, and craniofacial malformations. To discover the mechanism of FOXA2 regulation of pituitary development we generated an induced pluripotent stem cell line (FOXA2mut-iPSC) from the patient’s polymorphonuclear blood cells (PBMCs) using an EF1a-hSTEMCCA-loxP vector containing the pluripotency genes OCT-4, SOX-2, c-MYC and KLF4. FOXA2^mut-iPSC clone R1 had a normal karyotype and embryonic stem cell-like morphology. These cells express endogenous pluripotency-associated markers NANOG, SOX2, and OCT4, have alkaline phosphatase activity, and can differentiate into all three developmental layers, indicating that these cells are pluripotent. Short tandem repeat (STR) analysis confirmed that FOXA2^mut-iPSC R1 clone profiles matched those of the donor PBMCs. Next, we compared pituitary differentiation of FOXA2^mut-iPSC vs. control-iPSCs in vitro. Cells were cultured in a differentiation medium containing BMP4, the smoothened agonist SAG, and fibroblast growth factor (FGF), as described in Zimmer et al., 2016 (1). Gene expression analysis (by qRT-PCR) of samples collected on days 0, 4, 7, and 15 of the differentiation protocol showed an increased expression of genes associated with anterior pituitary development including OTX2, PITX1/2, and SIX1 in both cell lines (n=2). These preliminary data suggest that pituitary cell fate can be induced in the heterozygous FOXA2^mut-iPSC clone. Ongoing studies will assess pituitary hormone-producing cell differentiation after longer periods of FOXA2^mut-iPSC cell culture. In sum, patient iPSC differentiation is a promising tool for assessment of normal and variant FOXA2 function in human pituitary development, and for enlightening the mechanisms of FOXA2 action in human pituitary development. (1) Zimmer et al., Stem Cell Reports. 2016 Jun 14;6(6):858-872.

Presentation: 6/1/2024