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Enrichment of human embryonic stem cell-derived V3 interneurons using an Nkx2-2 gene-specific reporter.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Berzanskyte, Ieva 
Riccio, Federica 
Machado, Carolina Barcellos 
Bradbury, Elizabeth J 
Lieberam, Ivo 

Abstract

V3 spinal interneurons are a key element of the spinal circuits, which control motor function. However, to date, there are no effective ways of deriving a pure V3 population from human pluripotent stem cells. Here, we report a method for differentiation and isolation of spinal V3 interneurons, combining extrinsic factor-mediated differentiation and magnetic activated cell sorting. We found that differentiation of V3 progenitors can be enhanced with a higher concentration of Sonic Hedgehog agonist, as well as culturing cells in 3D format. To enable V3 progenitor purification from mixed differentiation cultures, we developed a transgene reporter, with a part of the regulatory region of V3-specific gene Nkx2-2 driving the expression of a membrane marker CD14. We found that in human cells, NKX2-2 initially exhibited co-labelling with motor neuron progenitor marker, but V3 specificity emerged as the differentiation culture progressed. At these later differentiation timepoints, we were able to enrich V3 progenitors labelled with CD14 to ~ 95% purity, and mature them to postmitotic V3 interneurons. This purification tool for V3 interneurons will be useful for in vitro disease modeling, studies of normal human neural development and potential cell therapies for disorders of the spinal cord.

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Keywords

Humans, Cell Differentiation, Hedgehog Proteins, Human Embryonic Stem Cells, Interneurons, Motor Neurons, Spinal Cord, Homeobox Protein Nkx-2.2

Journal Title

Sci Rep

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2045-2322
2045-2322

Volume Title

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (108874/Z/15/Z)
Medical Research Council (MR/N025865/1, MR/V002783/1)