Impaired yolk sac NAD metabolism disrupts murine embryogenesis with relevance to human birth defects

Congenital malformations can originate from numerous genetic or non-genetic factors but in most cases the causes are unknown. Genetic disruption of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD)de novosynthesis causes multiple malformations, collectively termed Congenital NAD Deficiency Disorder (CNDD), highlighting the necessity of this pathway during embryogenesis. Previous work in mice shows that NAD deficiency perturbs embryonic development specifically when organs are forming. While the pathway is predominantly active in the liver postnatally, the site of activity prior to and during organogenesis is unknown.

Here, we used a mouse model of human CNDD and assessed pathway functionality in embryonic livers and extraembryonic tissues via gene expression, enzyme activity and metabolic analyses. We found that the extra-embryonic visceral yolk sac endoderm exclusively synthesises NADde novoduring early organogenesis before the embryonic liver takes over this function. Under CNDD-inducing conditions, visceral yolk sacs had reduced NAD levels and altered NAD-related metabolic profiles, affecting embryo metabolism. Expression of requisite pathway genes is conserved in the equivalent yolk sac cell type in humans.

Our findings show that visceral yolk sac-mediated NADde novosynthesis activity is essential for mouse embryogenesis and its perturbation causes CNDD. As mouse and human yolk sacs are functionally homologous, our data improve the understanding of human congenital malformation causation.