Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold tremendous potential, both as a biological tool to uncover the pathophysiology of disease by creating relevant human cell models and as a source of cells for cell-based therapeutic applications. Studying the reprogramming process will also provide significant insight into tissue development.

We sought to characterize the derivation of iPSC lines from nasal epithelial cells (NECs) isolated from nasal mucosa samples of children, a highly relevant and easily accessible tissue for pediatric populations.

We performed detailed comparative analysis on the transcriptomes and methylomes of NECs, iPSCs derived from NECs (NEC-iPSCs), and embryonic stem cells (ESCs).

NEC-iPSCs express pluripotent cell markers, can differentiate into all 3 germ layers in vivo and in vitro, and have a transcriptome and methylome remarkably similar to those of ESCs. However, residual DNA methylation marks exist, which are differentially methylated between NEC-iPSCs and ESCs. A subset of these methylation markers related to epithelium development and asthma and specific to NEC-iPSCs persisted after several passages in vitro, suggesting the retention of an epigenetic memory of their tissue of origin. Our analysis also identified novel candidate genes with dynamic gene expression and DNA methylation changes during reprogramming, which are indicative of possible roles in airway epithelium development.

NECs are an excellent tissue source to generate iPSCs in pediatric asthmatic patients, and detailed characterization of the resulting iPSC lines would help us better understand the reprogramming process and retention of epigenetic memory.