Embryoid Body Formation from Mouse and Human Pluripotent Stem Cells for Transplantation to Study Brain Microenvironment and Cellular Differentiation

Overview

Journal Methods Mol Biol

Specialty Molecular Biology

Date 2021 Oct 6

PMID 34611820

Citations 2

Authors

Magdalena Guerra-Crespo

Omar Collazo-Navarrete

Rodrigo Ramos-Acevedo

Carmen Alejandra Morato-Torres

Birgitt Schule

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Human embryonic stem cell (hESC) and human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) technologies have a critical role in regenerative strategies for personalized medicine. Both share the ability to differentiate into almost any cell type of the human body. The study of their properties and clinical applications requires the development of robust and reproducible cell culture paradigms that direct cell differentiation toward a specific phenotype in vitro and in vivo. Our group evaluated the potential of mouse ESCs (mESCs), hESCs, and hiPSCs (collectively named pluripotent stem cells, PSCs) to analyze brain microenvironments through the use of embryoid body (EB)-derived cells from these cell sources. EB are cell aggregates in 3D culture conditions that recapitulate embryonic development. Our approach focuses on studying the midbrain dopaminergic phenotype and transplanting EB into the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) in a Parkinson's disease rodent model. Here, we describe cell culture protocols for EB generation from PSCs that show significant in vivo differentiation toward dopaminergic neurons.

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