Abstract 2778: Influence of the differentiation strategy on the phenotypic and genotypic features of iPSC derived NK cells
Authors: Huyghe Matthias , Desterke Christophe , Imeri Jusuf , Belliard Nathan , Turhan Ali G. , Griscelli Annelise Bennaceur , Griscelli Frank 
Published: March 2024

The iPSC-derived NK (iNK) cells offer new perspectives to produce large-scale of homogeneous immunotherapeutic cellular products and open the way towards manufacturing off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapies. Numerous strategies and protocols of differentiation of iPSCs toward NK lineage have been published in the last decade. Nevertheless, the embryological development of the NK cells and the impact of the differentiation strategy on the activity of the NK cells are still not clearly understood. Furthermore, very few studies have compared different NK differentiation strategies from iPSC. this study, we compared two previously reported protocols for NK cell generation from the same iPSC line, one feeder-based and the other feeder-free. In the first protocol, 3D hematopoietic differentiation was followed by lymphoid differentiation, using an OP9 DLL4 expressing feeder cell line. The second protocol employed a clinical-grade approach, utilizing the “spin embryoid body” method to generate primitive hematopoietic progenitors. Subsequently, these progenitors were differentiated towards the NK lineage in a feeder-free environment. Hematopoietic progenitors produced by these protocols have distinct phenotypes, suggesting variations in their maturity levels. Furthermore, the protocols have different kinetics of differentiation revealed by CD56 and CD7 phenotypes. Although, both protocols were able to efficiently generate functional and mature NK cells, characterized by the expression of activating and maturity ligands but with a distinct transcriptomic profile. iNK cells generated using feeders exhibit a more pronounced inflammatory profile with the expression of hallmark NFKB and STAT3 signaling pathways. In contrast, feeder-free iNK cells have a more proliferative profile as evidenced by increased expression of cell cycle factors such as E2F or Myc. Feeder-based iNK cells exhibit increased expression of transcription factors involved in NK cell differentiation, such as GATA2, STAT1, and IRF1. These transcriptional variances are reinforced by superior functionality observed in feeder-based NK cells compared to feeder-free NK cells, evidenced by increased degranulation (p-value &lt; 0.0001) and cytotoxicity (p-value = 0.0004) at a 1:2 (effector-to-target) ratio against the K562 cell line. Our findings indicate that, despite the advantages of the feeder-free strategy, the feeder-based protocol remains more efficient and produces iPSC-derived NK cells with an enhanced cytotoxic profile in vitro. Our comprehensive transcriptional analysis offers significant insights into the biological and functional properties of iNK cells. This information has the potential to oncover novel mechanisms for NK differentiation strategies from iPSCs.

Citation Format: Matthias Huyghe, Christophe Desterke, Jusuf Imeri, Nathan Belliard, Ali G. Turhan, Annelise Bennaceur Griscelli, Frank Griscelli. Influence of the differentiation strategy on the phenotypic and genotypic features of iPSC derived NK cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 2778.