Bridging the gap from frog research to human therapy: a tale of neural differentiation in Xenopus animal caps and human pluripotent cells.
Over the last decade, much progress has been made toward an understanding of the mechanism of regulation of neural differentiation. In this article, following a brief overview of neural induction research, I would like to discuss the potential contribution of basic embryological research to the progress of human therapeutic development in the present and future, focusing on the medical application of in vitro differentiation of neural tissues. This kind of linkage between basic and medical research will probably be strengthened even more by the recent emergence of human induced pluripotent stem cells. Human pluripotent stem cells are powerful tools for bridging the gap from our accumulated knowledge of embryology to regenerative medicine, as well as to a wide spectrum of medical and pharmaceutical research and development. In this commentary, I describe these issues with a particular emphasis on the contributions made by Japanese scientists.
Sasai
Yoshiki
Y
Organogenesis and Neurogenesis Group, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, 2-2-3 Minatojima Minamimachi, Chuo, Kobe 650-0047, Japan. yoshikisasai@cdb.riken.jp
Ogushi
Masatoshi
M
Nagase
Tomoko
T
Ando
Satoshi
S
D028341:Activins / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage; D015509:Developmental Biology / Q000379:methods*; D046149:Embryo Culture Techniques; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D013045:Species Specificity; D014981:Xenopus
D028341:Activins