Cited by 247Pluripotent Stem Cells ResearchAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsNeurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 109 of the 110 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 57 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Age-dependent instability of mature neuronal fate in induced neurons from Alzheimer’s patients

Open access

Abstract

Sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) exclusively affects elderly people. Using direct conversion of AD patient fibroblasts into induced neurons (iNs), we generated an age-equivalent neuronal model. AD patient-derived iNs exhibit strong neuronal transcriptome signatures characterized by downregulation of mature neuronal properties and upregulation of immature and progenitor-like signaling pathways. Mapping iNs to longitudinal neuronal differentiation trajectory data demonstrated that AD iNs reflect a hypo-mature neuronal identity characterized by markers of stress, cell cycle, and de-differentiation. Epigenetic landscape profiling revealed an underlying aberrant neuronal state that shares similarities with malignant transformation and age-dependent epigenetic erosion. To probe for the involvement of aging, we generated rejuvenated iPSC-derived neurons that showed no significant disease-related transcriptome signatures, a feature that is consistent with epigenetic clock and brain ontogenesis mapping, which indicate that fibroblast-derived iNs more closely reflect old adult brain stages. Our findings identify AD-related neuronal changes as age-dependent cellular programs that impair neuronal identity.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Directly converted induced neurons (iNs) from Alzheimer’s disease patients retain age-equivalent neuronal identity and show a hypo-mature, de-differentiated state with loss of mature neuronal gene expression and functional deficits. This AD-related instability is age-dependent: rejuvenated iPSC-derived neurons from the same patients show no significant disease transcriptome signature.

Key findings

  • AD iNs had 778 highly significant DE genes (FDR < 0.01), while parental fibroblasts showed no significant AD-specific DE genes; AD iN transcriptomes overlapped with post-mortem AD brain and neuronal single-nucleus AD signatures.
  • Downregulated genes in AD iNs were enriched for mature neuronal categories including synaptic transmission, oxidative phosphorylation, neuronal action potential, ion transport, and mitochondria; AD iNs showed reduced dendritic complexity, fewer synapsin and synapsin/PSD-95 puncta, and reduced spontaneous Ca²⁺ event frequency.
  • Upregulated genes in AD iNs were enriched for cell cycle, stem/progenitor maintenance, stress, apoptosis, senescence, and cancer-related pathways; ATAC-seq showed on average 36% more open chromatin peaks that were 7% wider, with 7,188 differentially accessible peaks, 97% gained in AD.
  • Rejuvenated iPSC-derived neurons showed no significant DE genes between control and AD subjects; iN DNA methylation ages reflected donor adult/old ages, whereas iPSC derivatives reflected pre-natal ages, and AD iNs did not show accelerated epigenetic aging over controls.

Methods

  • Fibroblasts from 16 AD subjects (13 sporadic, 3 familial) and 19 age- and sex-matched non-demented controls were directly converted into iNs using Ngn2/Ascl1-based, small-molecule-enhanced conversion and PSA-NCAM FACS isolation.
  • Assays included whole-genome RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, DNA methylation EPIC arrays, immunofluorescence, ELISA for Aβ42/40, ROS measurement, live-cell Ca²⁺ imaging, and morphological reconstruction.
  • A subset (n = 20) was reprogrammed to iPSCs and converted to iPSC-iNs as rejuvenated isogenic controls; transcriptomes were compared with post-mortem bulk and single-nucleus AD data, BrainSpan fetal/adult brain samples, and published neuronal differentiation trajectories.

Limitations

  • Stated in the paper: fibroblasts carry skin-specific, age-related changes that might interfere with AD-related iN changes; some brain-specific changes might not be captured; Ngn2/Ascl1 overexpression might override endogenous differences; other iPSC differentiation models might recapitulate AD phenotypes more prominently; and the cohort might not fully represent all AD patients.
  • Evident from the text: the model is in vitro and fibroblast-derived, and although AD iNs showed cell cycle re-entry markers and increased DNA content above diploid, no completed neuronal DNA replication was detected, so conclusions about cell cycle re-entry rely on markers and aneuploidy rather than completed division.

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Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.stem.2021.04.004

Cites

109 of 109 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

0 of 57 cited sources checked · 0 supported · 0 flagged

Show all 58 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 40
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 13
48 of 48
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Aging is crucial for age-related neurodegenerative diseases to unfold.

    “Because aging is likely crucial for age-related neurodegenerative diseases to unfold, we generated age-equivalent fibroblast-derived iNs from a cohort of primarily sporadic AD patients and cognitively normal controls.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Stem and progenitor cells, as well as transformed cells, typically reflect a globally open chromatin state, whereas differentiated cells possess a more defined and closed chromatin landscape.

    “Stem and progenitor cells, as well as transformed cells, typically reflect a globally open chromatin state, whereas differentiated cells possess a more defined and closed chromatin landscape (Figure 6A).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    LDHA is inversely associated with mature neuronal identity.

    “We assessed lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), a canonical glycolysis gene that is inversely associated with mature neuronal identity and is downregulated during neuronal differentiation (Figure 5G).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Transcriptome similarity between cultured neurons and BrainSpan cortical samples reflects their ontogenic (developmental) identity.

    “To classify the iNs and iPSC-iNs on an ontogenic identity scale, we compared our transcriptome data with samples from the entire range of human cortical brain development (Figure 7K).”
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Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Addgene identifiers conflict between resource sections

    Minor

    The key resources table assigns #127289 to the Ascl1 construct and #84777 to the EGFP construct. Materials availability instead assigns #127288 to Ascl1 and #127289 to EGFP.

  • Calcium-imaging cell counts exceed the stated sampling plan

    Minor

    The methods specify 10 donors, three fields per donor, and 10 cells per field, which gives 300 cells total, or 150 per group given the five donors per group in the caption. Figure 3 instead reports 160 control cells and 184 AD cells.

  • Mature-neuron results point to incompatible Figure 4 panels

    Minor

    The text cites Figures 4C and 4D for downregulated mature-neuronal gene sets and markers. The Figure 4 caption identifies those panels as upregulated KEGG pathways and dysregulated gene sets; Figure 3C and 3D are captioned as the mature-neuronal results.

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Metadata

Authors
Mertens, J., Herdy, J. R., Traxler, L., Schafer, S. T., Schlachetzki, J. C. M., Böhnke, L., Reid, D. A., Lee, H., Zangwill, D., Fernandes, D. P., Agarwal, R. K., Lucciola, R., Zhou-Yang, L., Karbacher, L., Edenhofer, F., Stern, S., Horvath, S., Paquola, A. C. M., Glass, C. K., Yuan, S. H., Ku, M., Szücs, A., Goldstein, L. S. B., Galasko, D., & Gage, F. H.
Affiliations
  • Salk Institute for Biological Studies (US)
  • University of California San Diego (US)
  • Universität Innsbruck (AT)
  • University of California, Los Angeles (US)
  • University of Minnesota (US)
  • University of Freiburg (DE)
Corresponding author
Gage, Fred H.
Venue
Cell Stem Cell
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-09
Volume
28
Issue
9
Pages
1533-1548.e6
ISSN
  • 1875-9777 (ISSN-L)
  • 1934-5909
OpenAlex
W3157334032
Cited by
240
References
110
Citations by year
2026: 34 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 54 · 2023: 54 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 11
FWCI
13.19
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cell stem cell (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • ELTE Digital Institutional Repository (EDIT) (Eötvös Loránd University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
  • University of California, San Diego
  • Marshallplan-Jubiläumsstiftung
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
  • Austrian Science Fund (ANN-135291)
  • BrightFocus Foundation
  • Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie
  • Alzheimer&apos;s Disease Research Center, Emory University
  • Alzheimer Nederland
  • European Commission (ERC-STG-2019-852086, H2020-MSCA-IF-2017-797205)
  • Alzheimer&apos;s Association
  • Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
  • American Heart Association
  • G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation
  • Allen Foundation (19PABH134610000)
  • National Institutes of Health (AG056306, AG056511, AG057706, AG062429)
  • European Research Council
  • National Institute on Aging (K99-AG056679)
  • Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
  • EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research
  • California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (RT2-01927)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Pluripotent Stem Cells Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, induced neurons, neuronal identity, neuronal maturation, fibroblast-to-neuron conversion, iPSC-derived neurons, epigenetic clocks, dedifferentiation, neuronal transcriptome
MeSH terms
Aged, Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Fibroblasts, Humans, Neurons, Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

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