A novel combination of factors, termed SPIE, which promotes dopaminergic neuron differentiation from human embryonic stem cells

• Published in: PloS one 2009-08, Vol.4 (8), p.e6606-e6606
• Main Authors: Vazin, Tandis, Becker, Kevin G, Chen, Jia, Spivak, Charles E, Lupica, Carl R, Zhang, Yongqing, Worden, Lila, Freed, William J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Anticoagulants; Biotechnology; Biotechnology/Chemical Biology of the Cell; Blotting, Western; Brain research; Carrier Proteins - physiology; Cell Biology/Developmental Molecular Mechanisms; Cell Biology/Neuronal and Glial Cell Biology; Cell Differentiation - physiology; Cell lines; Central nervous system; Chemokine CXCL12 - physiology; Coculture Techniques; Comparative analysis; CXCL12 protein; Cytokines - physiology; Developmental Biology/Cell Differentiation; Developmental Biology/Stem Cells; Differentiation; Dopamine; Dopamine - physiology; Dopamine receptors; Dopamine transporter; Drug abuse; Embryo cells; Embryonic stem cells; Embryonic Stem Cells - cytology; Embryonic Stem Cells - metabolism; Ephrin-B1 - physiology; Gene expression; Genomes; Genomics; Genotype & phenotype; Humans; Insulin; Insulin-like growth factor II; Insulin-Like Growth Factor II - physiology; Insulin-like growth factors; Ligands; Mesencephalon; Mice; Morphogenesis; Neurobiology; Neurogenesis; Neurological Disorders/Movement Disorders; Neurons; Neurons - cytology; Neuroscience/Neurobiology of Disease and Regeneration; Neuroscience/Neurodevelopment; Neuroscience/Neuronal and Glial Cell Biology; Neurosciences; Nuclear receptors; Nurr1 protein; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; Pleiotrophin; Polymerase chain reaction; Proteins; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Rodents; SDF-1 protein; Signaling; Stem cell transplantation; Stem cells; Synapses; Yang, Cindy
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006606

Stromal-Derived Inducing Activity (SDIA) is one of the most efficient methods of generating dopaminergic (DA) neurons from embryonic stem cells (ESC). DA neuron induction can be achieved by co-culturing ESC with the mouse stromal cell lines PA6 or MS5. The molecular nature of this effect, which has been termed "SDIA" is so far unknown. Recently, we found that factors secreted by PA6 cells provided lineage-specific instructions to induce DA differentiation of human ESC (hESC). In the present study, we compared PA6 cells to various cell lines lacking the SDIA effect, and employed genome expression analysis to identify differentially-expressed signaling molecules. Among the factors highly expressed by PA6 cells, and known to be associated with CNS development, were stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1/CXCL12), pleiotrophin (PTN), insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2), and ephrin B1 (EFNB1). When these four factors, the combination of which was termed SPIE, were applied to hESC, they induced differentiation to TH-positive neurons in vitro. RT-PCR and western blot analysis confirmed the expression of midbrain specific markers, including engrailed 1, Nurr1, Pitx3, and dopamine transporter (DAT) in cultures influenced by these four molecules. Electrophysiological recordings showed that treatment of hESC with SPIE induced differentiation of neurons that were capable of generating action potentials and forming functional synaptic connections. The combination of SDF-1, PTN, IGF2, and EFNB1 mimics the DA phenotype-inducing property of SDIA and was sufficient to promote differentiation of hESC to functional midbrain DA neurons. These findings provide a method for differentiating hESC to form DA neurons, without a requirement for the use of animal-derived cell lines or products.