title: Differentiation of human embryonic stem cells to regional specific neural precursors in chemically defined medium conditions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) provide a unique model to study early events in human development. The hESC-derived cells can potentially be used to replace or restore different tissues including neuronal that have been damaged by disease or injury.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The cells of two different hESC lines were converted to neural rosettes using adherent and chemically defined conditions. The progenitor cells were exposed to retinoic acid (RA) or to human recombinant basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in the late phase of the rosette formation. Exposing the progenitor cells to RA suppressed differentiation to rostral forebrain dopamine neural lineage and promoted that of spinal neural tissue including motor neurons. The functional characteristics of these differentiated neuronal precursors under both, rostral (bFGF) and caudalizing (RA) signals were confirmed by patch clamp analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that our differentiation protocol has the capacity to generate region-specific and electrophysiologically active neurons under in vitro conditions without embryoid body formation, co-culture with stromal cells and without presence of cells of mesodermal or endodermal lineages.
authors.affiliation: Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory, Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe (CIPF), Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Slaven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Erceg
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laínez
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ronaghi
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stojkovic
authors.forename: Maria Amparo
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pérez-Aragó
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Moreno-Manzano
authors.forename: Rubén
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moreno-Palanques
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Planells-Cases
authors.forename: Miodrag
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stojkovic
mesh_terms: D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D002460:Cell Line; D003470:Culture Media; D004594:Electrophysiology; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000502:physiology*; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D009928:Organ Specificity; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D012313:RNA