Stem cell derived spinal cord chips reproduce disease biomarkers in sporadic ALS patients [bulk RNAseq]

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder with complex origins. Familial monogenetic causes of ALS make up a small percentage of patients overall, and the cause of the majority of idiopathic (sporadic) form remains unknown. Frequently utilized for disease modeling, human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived motor neuron cultures lack cellular maturity in vitro and rarely recapitulate clinically relevant phenotypes of ALS. Microfluidic organ-on-chip systems enable co-culture of multiple disease-relevant cell types and enhance cellular maturity. Here, we describe the generation of spinal cord (SC)-chips from 8 sporadic ALS (sALS) patients and 10 non-diseased controls. Transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of SC-Chips revealed changes in expression of targets known to be disrupted in ALS patients. Particularly, intermediate filaments (IF) neurofilament heavy (NEFH), medium (NEFM), and light (NEFL) were upregulated in SC-Chips from sALS patients. Single nuclei RNAseq (sNucseq) of SC-Chips revealed two subpopulations of motor neurons and cell-specific changes related to ALS pathogenesis and mimicking conditions in vivo.