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- Adler, Andrew, et al.
(författare)
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Transsynaptic tracing and its emerging use to assess graftreconstructed neural circuits
- 2020
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Ingår i: Stem Cells. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1549-4918 .- 1066-5099. ; 38:6, s. 716-726
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fetal neural progenitor grafts have been evaluated in preclinical animal models of spinal cord injury and Parkinson’s disease for decades, but the initial reliance on primary tissue as a cell source limited the scale of their clinical translatability. With the development of robust methods to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells to specific neural subtypes, cell replacement therapy holds renewed promise to treat a variety of neurodegenerative diseases and injuries at scale. As these cell sources are evaluated in preclinical models, new transsynaptic tracing methods are making it possible to study the connectivity between host and graft neurons with greater speed and detail than was previously possible. To date, these studies have revealed that widespread, long-lasting, and anatomically-appropriate synaptic contacts are established between host and graft neurons, as well as new aspects of host-graft connectivity which may be relevant to clinical cell replacement therapy. It is not yet clear, however, whether the synaptic connectivity between graft and host neurons is as celltype specific as it is in the endogenous nervous system, or whether that connectivity is responsible for the functional efficacy of cell replacement therapy. Here, we review evidence suggesting that the new contacts established between host and graft neuronsmay indeed be cell-type specific, and how transsynaptic tracing can be used inthe future to further elucidate the mechanisms of graft-mediated functional recovery in spinal cord injury and Parkinson’s disease.
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| 2. |
- Denham, Mark, et al.
(författare)
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Gli1 Is an Inducing Factor in Generating Floor Plate Progenitor Cells from Human Embryonic Stem Cells
- 2010
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Ingår i: Stem Cells. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1549-4918 .- 1066-5099. ; 28:10, s. 1805-1815
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Generation of mesencephalic dopamine (mesDA) neurons from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) requires several stages of signaling from various extrinsic and intrinsic factors. To date, most methods incorporate exogenous treatment of Sonic hedgehog (SHH) to derive mesDA neurons. However, we and others have shown that this approach is inefficient for generating FOXA2+ cells, the precursors of mesDA neurons. As mesDA neurons are derived from the ventral floor plate (FP) regions of the embryonic neural tube, we sought to develop a system to derive FP cells from hESC. We show that forced expression of the transcription factor GLI1 in hESC at the earliest stage of neural induction, resulted in their commitment to FP lineage. The GLI1+ cells coexpressed FP markers, FOXA2 and Corin, and displayed exocrine SHH activity by ventrally patterning the surrounding neural progenitors. This system results in 63% FOXA2+ cells at the neural progenitor stage of hESC differentiation. The GLI1-transduced cells were also able to differentiate to neurons expressing tyrosine hydroxylase. This study demonstrates that GLI1 is a determinant of FP specification in hESC and describes a highly robust and efficient in vitro model system that mimics the ventral neural tube organizer. STEM CELLS 2010; 28: 1805-1815
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