Abstract
Lipodystrophies, characterized by partial or complete loss of adipose tissue, have been associated with mutations in the lamin A gene. It remains unclear how lamin A mutants interfere with adipose tissue formation. Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) presents the most severe form of lamin A-associated diseases, whose patients show a complete loss of subcutaneous fat. Using iPSCs reprogrammed from HGPS fibroblasts, we induced adipocyte formation from iPSC derived embryoid bodies or from iPSC derived mesenchymal stem cells. Both approaches revealed a severe lipid storage defect in HGPS cells at late differentiation stage, faithfully recapitulating HGPS patient phenotype. Expression analysis further indicated that progerin inhibited the transcription activation of PPARγ2 and C/EBPα, but had little effects on the early adipogenic regulators. Our experiments demonstrate two comparable approaches of in vitro modeling lipodystrophies with patient-specific iPSCs, and support a regulatory role of lamin A in the terminal differentiation stage of adipogenesis.