Expansion of neural progenitors to produce dopaminergic neurons
2012
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Parkinson's disease is characterized by a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons. Currently, there are no efficient therapies that can disrupt or restore the massive neuronal loss, so new strategies are needed. Recently, a cell therapy approach consisting of grafting fetal midbrain tissue was tested as a proof-of-concept in patients. However, the cell material is very limited. Here, a new method of expansion of neural progenitor cells present in the human ventral midbrain fetal tissue is developed to produce large quantities of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. The results show that the production of neurospheres with these progenitor cells can largely expand the number of neural progenitors with a capacity to differentiate into midbrain dopaminergic neurons. The use of Wnt5a induced the differentiation of the expanded neural progenitors towards dopaminergic neurons that showed in vivo features. The final number of dopaminergic-like cells in these preparations was 6 times higher than in the original tissue. This study brings a new methodology that can help to produce large amounts of dopaminergic cells, reducing the amount of fetal tissue needed, to enhance the development of cell replacement therapy in Parkinson's disease.
Efficient expansion and dopaminergic differentiation of human fetal ventral midbrain neural stem cells by midbrain morphogens
Ernest Arenas
Added on: 08-30-2021
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969996112002938[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/a8fd26ef-b113-47ab-92ba-fd2be449c7eb
