Phenotypically relevant.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by the accumulation of fat within the liver that can lead to inflammation, fibrosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The most common disease implicated genetic variant is I148M in the gene coding for Patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 3 (PNPLA3). DefiniGEN disease modelled NAFLD hepatocytes represent an optimized model for drug discovery applications and a principal tool for elucidating the underlying mechanisms of the disease.

  

 

 

DefiniGEN D ICON

Disease circuit verified

Disease circuit verified three product variants available: Def-HEP PNPLA3-I148M, Def-HEP PNPLA3 KO1, Def-HEP PNPLA3 KO2 plus WT isogenic control

DefiniGEN D ICON

Key hepatocyte markers

Display multiple key hepatocyte markers A1AT, ALB, HNF4a, and TTR.

DefiniGEN D ICON

Phenotypically relevant

Phenotypic analysis verified fatty acid accumulation.  Mutations in PNPLA3 have been demonstrated to interfere with lipid metabolism and induce a steatotic-like phenotype  

DefiniGEN D ICON

Hepatocyte differentiation

Genetic manipulation does not negatively affect differentiation capacity into hepatocytes

Technical Data

Disease circuit verification

Figure 1. Sanger sequencing of the edited PNPLA3 gene using CRISPR/Cas9 in the reference hiPSC line. (A) PNPLA3 gene in the wild-type line. (B) PNPLA3 homozygous knock-in clone with the I148M mutation (Isoleucine to methionine at position 148, exon 3). (C) PNPLA3 homozygous knock-out with a 6bp deletion and no frameshift mutation.

Sequencing_NAFLD_disease_modelled_hepatocytes

Key hepatocyte marker analysis

Figure 2. Functional analysis of Def-HEP PNPLA3 cells. qPCR analysis indicates that the PNPLA3 CRISPR-modified cells can be successfully differentiated into hepatocyte cells that express key hepatocyte markers at similar levels to primary human hepatocytes (PHH).

Key_hepatocyte_marker_analysis_DefiniGEN_NAFLD_disease_modelled_hepatocytes_vector_ScZ7tOB

Fatty acid accumulation

Figure 3. Fatty acid accumulation in Def-HEP PNPLA3 cells. BODIPY staining shows a higher accumulation of lipids in Def-HEP I148M when cultured in low-lipid media. When cells are treated with 0.25mM of Oleic acid for 7 days all cell variants demonstrate an increase in lipid accumulation. A moderate increase in lipid accumulation can be observed with treatment of 0.25mM of Palmitic acid for 7 days.

 

Fatty_acid_accumulation_in_DefiniGEN_NAFLD_cells

Principal component analysis

Figure 4. Principal component analysis of lipid metabolism-related genes. PCA analysis of Def-HEP cells using a subset of 129 lipid metabolism associated genes demonstrates that the wild-type control and CRISPR modified PNPLA3 disease model hepatocyte cells cluster differently independently of fatty acid

PCA_Analysis_DefiniGEN_NAFLD_disease_modelled_hepatocytes_NqThX34
Wild-type hepatocytes

Key Publications

Publication

Generation of Hepatocytes from Pluripotent Stem Cells for Drug Screening and Developmental Modeling.

Publication

Targeted gene correction of α1-antitrypsin deficiency in induced pluripotent stem cells.

Publication

Modeling inherited metabolic disorders of the liver using human induced pluripotent stem cells.
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