Applying Spinal Cord Organoids as a quantitative approach to study the mammalian Hedgehog pathway.

ABSTRACT: The Hedgehog (HH) pathway is crucial for embryonic development, and adult homeostasis. Its dysregulation is implicated in multiple diseases. Existing cellular models used to study HH signal regulation in mammals do not fully recapitulate the complexity of the pathway. Here we show that Spinal Cord Organoids (SCOs) can be applied to quantitively study the activity of the HH pathway. During SCO formation, the specification of different categories of neural progenitors (NPC) depends on the intensity of the HH signal, mirroring the process that occurs during neural tube development. By assessing the number of NPCs within these distinct subgroups, we are able to categorize and quantify the activation level of the HH pathway. We validate this system by measuring the effects of mutating the HH re

SUBMITTER: Holzner M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11198841 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature