Saida, K. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2025

A kidney specific mouse model to study the effects of in vivo induction of Yamanaka factors

IntroductionMaladaptive repair after acute kidney injury (AKI) leads to fibrosis and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Improving the resilience and stimulating tissue repair after injury is crucial to prevent AKI-to-CKD transition. Using a combination of transcription factors (Yamanaka factors Oct4, Klf4 and Sox2, "OKS") to partially reprogram tissues and enhance regeneration in vivo, could be a promising approach as shown by amelioration after various organ injury, yet not investigated for AKI to date. MethodsWe used a ubiquitously and kidney-specific transgenic mouse model to investigate OKS expression in kidney. In a kidney-specific model using Pax8-Cre, we then induced AKI via aristolochic acid (AA), simultaneously expressing OKS to determine potential protective effects after kidney injury. ResultsWe show that a ubiquitously expressing OKS-mouse model was not suitable due to toxic effects and limited kidney expression. In the Pax8-Cre mouse model, we observed expression almost exclusively to proximal tubules. While induction for more than 3 days caused dysplastic tumor formation, an induction regimen limited to 3 days was not able to improve phenotypic outcome after AA-injury. ConclusionPartial reprogramming of the kidney using OKS is feasible; however, it requires a delicate balance to the risk of oncogenic transformation. Determine a dose that effectively promotes repair without crossing the threshold into harmful effects remains a major challenge, posing significant safety concerns for translating the approach to humans in the near future.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Regulation of human development by ubiquitin chain editing of chromatin remodelers

Embryonic development occurs through commitment of pluripotent stem cells to differentiation programs that require highly coordinated changes in gene expression. Chromatin remodeling of gene regulatory elements is a critical component of how such changes are achieved. While many factors controlling chromatin dynamics are known, mechanisms of how different chromatin regulators are orchestrated during development are not well understood. Here, we describe LINKED (LINKage-specific-deubiquitylation-deficiency-induced Embryonic Defects) syndrome, a novel multiple congenital anomaly disorder caused by hypomorphic hemizygous missense variants in the deubiquitylase OTUD5/DUBA. Studying LINKED mutations in vitro, in mouse, and in models of neuroectodermal differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells, we uncover a novel regulatory circuit that coordinates chromatin remodeling pathways during early differentiation. We show that the K48-linkage-specific deubiquitylation activity of OTUD5 is essential for murine and human development and, if reduced, leads to aberrant cell-fate specification. OTUD5 controls differentiation through preventing the degradation of multiple chromatin regulators including ARID1A/B and HDAC2, mutation of which underlie developmental syndromes that exhibit phenotypic overlap with LINKED patients. Accordingly, loss of OTUD5 during early differentiation leads to less accessible chromatin at neural and neural crest enhancers and thus aberrant rewiring of gene expression networks. Our work identifies a novel mechanistic link between phenotypically related developmental disorders and an essential function for linkagespecific ubiquitin editing of substrate groups (i.e. chromatin remodeling complexes) during early cellfate decisions - a regulatory concept, we predict to be a general feature of embryonic development.

genetics↗