title: Motoneuron differentiation of immortalized human spinal cord cell lines.
abstract: Human motoneuron cell lines will be valuable tools for spinal cord research and drug discovery. To create such cell lines, we immortalized NCAM(+)/neurofilament(+) precursors from human embryonic spinal cord with a tetracycline repressible v-myc oncogene. Clonal NCAM(+)/neurofilament(+) cell lines differentiated exclusively into neurons within 1 week. These neurons displayed extensive processes, exhibited immunoreactivity for mature neuron-specific markers such as tau and synaptophysin, and fired action potentials upon current injection. Moreover, a clonal precursor cell line gave rise to multiple types of spinal cord neurons, including ChAT(+)/Lhx3(+)/Lhx4(+) motoneurons and GABA(+) interneurons. These neuronal restricted precursor cell lines will expedite the elucidation of molecular mechanisms that regulate the differentiation, maturation and survival of specific subsets of spinal cord neurons, and the identification and validation of novel drug targets for motoneuron diseases and spinal cord injury.
authors.affiliation: Signal Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, San Diego, California 92121, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thode
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pardinas
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Sah
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D002469:Cell Separation; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D006801:Humans; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D019006:Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000378:metabolism; D016900:Neurofilament Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology; D016274:Oncogene Protein p55(v-myc) / Q000378:metabolism; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000473:pathology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000166:cytology* / Q000196:embryology; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D019006:Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules; D016900:Neurofilament Proteins; D016274:Oncogene Protein p55(v-myc)