Phenotypic and molecular features underlying neurodegeneration of motor neurons derived from spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy patients.

Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the expansion of polyglutamine region in the androgen receptor. To gain insights into mechanisms of SBMA, four wild-type and five SBMA iPSC lines were differentiated to spinal motor neurons (sMNs) with high efficiency. SBMA sMNs showed neurite defects, reduced sMN survival and decreased protein synthesis levels. Microarray analysis revealed a dysregulation in various neuronal-related signalling pathways in SBMA sMNs. Strikingly, FAM135B a novel gene of unknown function, was found drastically downregulated in SBMA sMNs. Knockdown of FAM135B in wild-type sMNs reduced their survival and contributed to neurite defects, similar to SBMA sMNs, suggesting a functional role of FAM135B in SBMA. The degenerative phenotypes and dysregulated genes revealed could be potential therapeutic targets for SBMA.

Generation of sibling-matched induced pluripotent stem cell lines from spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy patients.

Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the expansion of CAG repeats in the Androgen Receptor gene (AR). We report the generation of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from two SBMA patients and their healthy siblings. The SBMA and healthy iPSC lines retain the number of AR CAG repeats, express pluripotency markers and are able to differentiate into the three germ layers. The iPSC lines are also free of Sendai virus transgenes and have normal karyotypes. The SBMA iPSC lines with their sibling-matched controls would serve as useful tools to study SBMA disease mechanism.