Author Insight: Down Syndrome iPSC Model: Endothelial Perspective on Tumor Development

Mariana Perepitchka, Yekaterina Galat, and Dr. Vasiliy Galat discuss their 2020 research paper published by Oncotarget, entitled, "Down syndrome iPSC model: endothelial perspective on tumor development." DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27712 Correspondence to - Mariana Perepitchka - mperepitchka@u.northwestern.edu, Yekaterina Galat - ygalat@luriechildrens.org, and Vasiliy Galat - v-galat@northwestern.edu Abstract Trisomy 21 (T21), known as Down syndrome (DS), is a widely studied chromosomal abnormality. Previous studies have shown that DS individuals have a unique cancer profile. While exhibiting low solid tumor prevalence, DS patients are at risk for hematologic cancers, such as acute megakaryocytic leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. We speculated that endothelial cells are active players in this clinical background. To this end, we hypothesized that impaired DS endothelial development and functionality, impacted by genome-wide T21 alterations, potentially results in a suboptimal endothelial microenvironment with the capability to prevent solid tumor growth. To test this hypothesis, we assessed molecular and phenotypic differences of endothelial cells differentiated from Down syndrome and euploid iPS cells. Microarray, RNA-Seq, and bioinformatic analyses revealed that most significantly expressed genes belong to angiogenic, cytoskeletal rearrangement, extracellular matrix remodeling, and inflammatory pathways. Interestingly, the majority of these genes are not located on Chromosome 21. To substantiate these findings, we carried out functional assays. The obtained phenotypic results correlated with the molecular data and showed that Down syndrome endothelial cells exhibit decreased proliferation, reduced migration, and a weak TNF-α inflammatory response. Based on this data, we provide a set of genes potentially associated with Down syndrome’s elevated leukemic incidence and its unfavorable solid tumor microenvironment—highlighting the potential use of these genes as therapeutic targets in translational cancer research. Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article - https://oncotarget.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Foncotarget.27712 Press release - https://www.oncotarget.com/news/pr/down-syndrome-ipsc-model-an-endothelial-perspective-on-tumor-development/ Keywords - Down syndrome, iPSC-derived endothelial model, T21 genome-wide Implications, meta-analysis, tumor microenvironment About Oncotarget Oncotarget is a peer-reviewed, open access biomedical journal covering research on all aspects of oncology. To learn more about Oncotarget, please visit https://www.oncotarget.com and connect with us: SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/oncotarget Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Oncotarget/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/oncotarget Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/oncotargetjrnl/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/OncotargetYouTube LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncotarget Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/oncotarget/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/Oncotarget/ Oncotarget is published by Impact Journals, LLC: https://www.ImpactJournals.com Media Contact MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM 18009220957