Cell cycle dynamics of mouse embryonic stem cells in the ground state and during transition to formative pluripotency

WAISMAN, ARIEL; SEVLEVER, FEDERICO; ELÍAS COSTA, MARTÍN; COSENTINO, MARÍA SOLEDAD; MIRIUKA, SANTIAGO G.; VENTURA, ALEJANDRA C.; GUBERMAN, ALEJANDRA S.

Scientific Reports

Nature Publishing Group

Año: 2019 vol. 9

Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) can be maintained as homogeneous populations in the groundstate of pluripotency. Release from this state in minimal conditions allows to obtain cells that resemblethose of the early post-implantation epiblast, providing an important developmental model to studycell identity transitions. However, the cell cycle dynamics of mESCs in the ground state and duringits dissolution have not been extensively studied. By performing live imaging experiments of mESCsbearing cell cycle reporters, we show here that cells in the pluripotent ground state display a cellcycle structure comparable to the reported for mESCs in serum-based media. Upon release from selfrenewal,the cell cycle is rapidly accelerated by a reduction in the length of the G1 phase and of the S/G2/M phases, causing an increased proliferation rate. Analysis of cell lineages indicates that cell cyclevariables of sister cells are highly correlated, suggesting the existence of inherited cell cycle regulatorsfrom the parental cell. Together with a major morphological reconfiguration upon differentiation, ourfindings support a correlation between this in vitro model and early embryonic events.