Submitted on January 27, 2005
Accepted on June 9, 2005
Development of functional neurons from postnatal stem cells in vitro
Eric W. Rowe 1,
Du
an M. Jeftinija 1,
Ksenija Jeftinija 1,
Srdija Jeftinija 1*
1 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Iowa State University
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sjeftini{at}iastate.edu.
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Abstract |
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In order for stem cells to fulfill their clinical promise we must understand their developmental transitions, and it must be possible to control the differentiation of stem cells into specific cell fates. To understand the mechanism of the sequential restriction and multipotency of stem cells, we have established culture conditions that allow the differentiation of multipotential neural stem cell from postnatal stem cells. We used immunocytochemistry, fluorescence microscopy, and calcium imaging to demonstrate that progeny of adult rat neural stem cells develop into functional neurons that release excitatory neurotransmitters. We also found that the nontoxic fragment C (HC) of tetanus toxin, a toxin which targets neurons with high specificity, retained the specificity towards neural stem cell-derived neurons. These studies show that neural stem cells derived from adult tissues retain the potential to differentiate into functional neurons with morphological and functional properties of mature CNS neurons.
