Stem Cell Reports (Sep 2016)

A Panel of Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Reveals the Variety and Dynamic of Pluripotent States in Rabbits

  • Pierre Osteil,
  • Anaïs Moulin,
  • Claire Santamaria,
  • Thierry Joly,
  • Luc Jouneau,
  • Maxime Aubry,
  • Yann Tapponnier,
  • Catherine Archilla,
  • Barbara Schmaltz-Panneau,
  • Jérôme Lecardonnel,
  • Harmonie Barasc,
  • Nathalie Mouney-Bonnet,
  • Clémence Genthon,
  • Alain Roulet,
  • Cécile Donnadieu,
  • Hervé Acloque,
  • Elen Gocza,
  • Véronique Duranthon,
  • Marielle Afanassieff,
  • Pierre Savatier

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2016.07.022
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 3
pp. 383 – 398

Abstract

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Conventional rabbit embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines are derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) of pre-implantation embryos using methods and culture conditions that are established for primate ESCs. In this study, we explored the capacity of the rabbit ICM to give rise to ESC lines using conditions similar to those utilized to generate naive ESCs in mice. On single-cell dissociation and culture in fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2)-free, serum-supplemented medium, rabbit ICMs gave rise to ESC lines lacking the DNA-damage checkpoint in the G1 phase like mouse ESCs, and with a pluripotency gene expression profile closer to the rabbit ICM/epiblast profiles. These cell lines can be converted to FGF2-dependent ESCs after culture in conventional conditions. They can also colonize the rabbit pre-implantation embryo. These results indicate that rabbit epiblast cells can be coaxed toward different types of pluripotent stem cells and reveal the dynamics of pluripotent states in rabbit ESCs.