Cord Blood-derived Neuronal Cells by Ectopic Expression of Sox2 and C-Myc

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2012 Jul 21

PMID 22814375

Citations 43

Authors

Alessandra Giorgetti

Maria C N Marchetto

Mo Li

Diana Yu

Raffaella Fazzina

Yangling Mu

Antonio Adamo

Ida Paramonov

Julio Castano Cardoso

Montserrat Barragan Monasterio

Cedric Bardy

Riccardo Cassiani-Ingoni

Guang-Hui Liu

Fred H Gage

Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The finding that certain somatic cells can be directly converted into cells of other lineages by the delivery of specific sets of transcription factors paves the way to novel therapeutic applications. Here we show that human cord blood (CB) CD133(+) cells lose their hematopoietic signature and are converted into CB-induced neuronal-like cells (CB-iNCs) by the ectopic expression of the transcription factor Sox2, a process that is further augmented by the combination of Sox2 and c-Myc. Gene-expression analysis, immunophenotyping, and electrophysiological analysis show that CB-iNCs acquire a distinct neuronal phenotype characterized by the expression of multiple neuronal markers. CB-iNCs show the ability to fire action potentials after in vitro maturation as well as after in vivo transplantation into the mouse hippocampus. This system highlights the potential of CB cells and offers an alternative means to the study of cellular plasticity, possibly in the context of drug screening research and of future cell-replacement therapies.

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