RESEARCH ARTICLE Differentiate or Die: 3-Bromopyruvate and Pluripotency in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

Background Pluripotent embryonic stem cells grown under standard conditions (ESC) have a markedly glycolytic profile, which is shared with many different types of cancer cells. Thus, some ther-apeutic strategies suggest that pharmacologically shifting cancer cells towards an oxidative phenotype, using glycolysis inhibitors, may reduce cancer aggressiveness. Given the meta-bolic parallels between cancer and stemness would chemotherapeutical agents have an effect on pluripotency, and could a strategy involving these agents be envisioned to modu-late stem cell fate in an accessible manner? In this manuscript we attempted to determine the effects of 3-bromopyruvate (3BrP) in pluripotency. Although it has other intracellular tar-gets, this compound is a potent inhibitor of glycolysis enzymes thought to be important to maintain a glycolytic profile. The goal was also to determine if we could contribute towards a pharmacologically accessible metabolic strategy to influence cell differentiation. Methodology/Principal Findings Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC) grown under standard pluripotency conditions (in th