Pig Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neural Rosettes Developmentally Mimic Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Neural Differentiation

For diseases of the brain, the pig (Sus scrofa) is increasingly being used as a model organism that shares many anatomical and biological similarities with humans. We report that pig induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) can recapitulate events in early mammalian neural development. Pig iPSC line (POU5F1(high)/SSEA4(low)) had a higher potential to form neural rosettes (NR) containing neuroepithelial cells than either POU5F1(low)/SSEA4(low) or POU5F1(low)/SSEA4(high) lines. Thus, POU5F1 and SSEA4 pluripotency marker profiles in starting porcine iPSC populations can predict their propensity to form more robust NR populations in culture. The NR were isolated and expanded in vitro, retaining their NR morphology and neuroepithelial molecular properties. These cells expressed anterior central nervous system fate markers OTX2 and GBX2 through at least seven passages, and responded to retinoic acid, promoting a more posterior fate (HOXB4+, OTX2-, and GBX2-). These findings offer insight into pig iPSC development, which parallels the human iPSC in both anterior and posterior neural cell fates. These in vitro similarities in early neural differentiation processes support the use of pig iPSC and differentiated neural cells as a cell therapy in allogeneic porcine neural injury and degeneration models, providing relevant translational data for eventual human neural cell therapies.