Biophysical cues to optimize dopaminergic neurons production
2018
Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore(1)
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada(2)
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada(2)
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to the progressive death of dopaminergic neurons. In the last years, cell replacement therapies have shown to have great potential as therapeutic strategies for this disease, with yet no cure. However, the available approaches to obtain high quality and big quantities of cells for transplantation applications is still challenging. Here, biophysical cues have been used to enhance differentiation and maturation towards dopaminergic cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells. Different topographical patterns were applied during differentiation and maturation stages, and the researchers found that specific patterns were beneficial for initial lineage commitment and others increased neural complexity and functionality at terminal stages of maturation. The different biophysical cues were also able to produce functional dopaminergic neurons from Parkinson's patients with specific mutations. Overall, the researchers propose the inclusion of topographical patterns as an optimization step towards the refinement of differentiation protocols for cell therapy strategies and modelling of Parkinson's disease.
Sequential application of discrete topographical patterns enhances derivation of functional mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons from human induced pluripotent stem cells
Eyleen L K Goh(1), Evelyn K F Yim(2)
Added on: 09-01-2021
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-27653-1[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/a8fd26ef-b113-47ab-92ba-fd2be449c7eb
