Physiological normoxia and absence of EGF is required for the long-term propagation of anterior neural precursors from human pluripotent cells.

ABSTRACT: Widespread use of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to study neuronal physiology and function is hindered by the ongoing need for specialist expertise in converting hPSCs to neural precursor cells (NPCs). Here, we describe a new methodology to generate cryo-preservable hPSC-derived NPCs that retain an anterior identity and are propagatable long-term prior to terminal differentiation, thus abrogating regular de novo neuralization. Key to achieving passagable NPCs without loss of identity is the combination of both absence of EGF and propagation in physiological levels (3%) of O2. NPCs generated in this way display a stable long-term anterior forebrain identity and importantly retain developmental competence to patterning signals. Moreover, compared to NPCs maintained at ambient O2 (21%),

SUBMITTER: Bilican B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3895023 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature