Volume 24, No 9, Sep 2014
ISSN: 1001-0602
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018
impact factor 17.848*
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)
Volume 24 Issue 9, September 2014: 1121-1136 | Open Access
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Blocking autocrine VEGF signaling by sunitinib, an anti-cancer drug, promotes embryonic stem cell self-renewal and somatic cell reprogramming
Guofang Chen1,*, Xinxiu Xu1,2,*, Lihong Zhang1, Yanbin Fu2, Min Wang1, Haifeng Gu1 and Xin Xie1,2
1CAS Key Laboratory of Receptor Research, the National Center for Drug Screening, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 189 Guo Shou Jing Road, Shanghai 201203, China
2Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, Laboratory of Receptor-based Bio-medicine, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Correspondence: Xin Xie, Tel: +86-21-50801313 ex 156(xxie@simm.ac.cn)
Maintaining the self-renewal of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) could be achieved by activating the extrinsic signaling, i.e., the use of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), or blocking the intrinsic differentiation pathways, i.e., the use of GSK3 and MEK inhibitors (2i). Here we found that even in medium supplemented with LIF, mESCs still tend to differentiate toward meso-endoderm lineages after long-term culture and the culture spontaneously secretes vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs). Blocking VEGF signaling with sunitinib, an anti-cancer drug and a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitor mainly targeting VEGF receptors (VEGFRs), is capable of maintaining the mESCs in the undifferentiated state without the need for feeder cells or LIF. Sunitinib facilitates the derivation of mESCs from blastocysts, and the mESCs maintained in sunitinib-containing medium remain pluripotent and are able to contribute to chimeric mice. Sunitinib also promotes iPSC generation from MEFs with only Oct4. Knocking down VEGFR2 or blocking it with neutralizing antibody mimicks the effect of sunitinib, indicating that blocking VEGF/VEGFR signaling is indeed beneficial to the self-renewal of mESCs. We also found that hypoxia-inducible factor alpha (HIF1α) and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress are involved in the production of VEGF in mESCs. Blocking both pathways inhibits the expression of VEGF and prevents spontaneous differentiation of mESCs. Interestingly, LIF may also exert its effect by downregulating HIF1α and ER stress pathways and subsequent VEGF expression. These results indicate the existence of an intrinsic differentiation pathway in mESCs by activating the autocrine VEGF signaling. Blocking VEGF signaling with sunitinib or other small molecules help to maintain the mESCs in the ground state of pluripotency.
10.1038/cr.2014.112
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