Hypoxia promotes differentiation of pure cartilage from human induced pluripotent stem cells

While cartilage can be produced from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), challenges such as long culture periods and compromised tissue purity continue to prevail. The present study aimed to determine whether cartilaginous tissue could be produced from iPSCs under hypoxia and, if so, to evaluate its effects on cellular metabolism and purity of the produced tissue. Human iPSCs (hiPSCs) were cultured for cartilage differentiation in monolayers under normoxia or hypoxia (5% O-2), and chondrocyte differentiation was evaluated using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Subsequently, cartilage differentiation of hiPSCs was conducted in 3D culture under normoxia or hypoxia (5% O-2), and the formed cartilage-like tissues were evaluated on days 28 and 56 using histological analyses. Hypoxia suppressed the expression levels of the immature mesodermal markers brachyury (T) and forkhead box protein F1; however, it promoted the expression of the chondrogenic markers Acan and CD44. The number of sex-determining region Y-box 9-positive cells and the percentages of safranin O-positive and type 2 collagen-positive tissues increased under hypoxic conditions. Moreover, upon hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1 alpha staining, nuclei of tissues cultured under hypoxia stained more deeply compared with those of tissues cultured under normoxia. Overall, these findings indicated that hypoxia not only enhanced cartilage matrix production, but also improved tissue purity by promoting the expression of HIF-1 alpha gene. Potentially, pure cartilage-like tissues could be produced rapidly and conveniently using this method.