Abstract
Here we provide a protocol for the directed differentiation of hEPI-NCSC into midbrain dopaminergic neurons, which degenerate in Parkinson’s disease. hEPI-NCSC are neural crest-derived multipotent stem cells that persist into adulthood in the bulge of hair follicles. The experimental design is distinctly different from conventional protocols for embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. It includes pre-differentiation of the multipotent hEPI-NCSC into neural stem cell-like cells, followed by ventralizing, patterning, continued exposure to the TGFβ receptor inhibitor, SB431542, and at later stages of differentiation the presence of the WNT inhibitor, IWP-4. All cells expressed A9 midbrain dopaminergic neuron progenitor markers with gene expression levels comparable to those in normal human substantia nigra. The current study shows for the first time that virtually homogeneous populations of dopaminergic neurons can be derived ex vivo from somatic stem cells without the need for purification, with useful timeliness and high efficacy. This novel development is an important first step towards the establishment of fully functional dopaminergic neurons from an ontologically relevant stem cell type, hEPI-NCSC.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12015-013-9493-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Generating large numbers of neurons for disease modeling, drug discovery and future cell replacement therapy in Parkinson’s disease is an active and promising field of research in which much progress has been achieved in recent years
Chambers et al [1] showed that dual SMAD inhibition leads to complete neural conversion of human embryonic stem cells
The same group built on this observation and generated a cell population of which 60–80 % expressed the neuronal marker genes NURR1, LMX1a, FOXA2 and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) by day 50 in culture [2]
Summary
Generating large numbers of neurons for disease modeling, drug discovery and future cell replacement therapy in Parkinson’s disease is an active and promising field of research in which much progress has been achieved in recent years. The same group built on this observation and generated a cell population of which 60–80 % expressed the neuronal marker genes NURR1, LMX1a, FOXA2 and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) by day 50 in culture [2]. Active canonical WNT signaling, which is a prerequisite for midbrain dopaminergic neuron differentiation, is a hallmark of neural crest cells.
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