title: A new culturing strategy improves functional neuronal development of human neural progenitor cells.
abstract: Cell replacement therapies that rely on in vitro differentiation of human neural progenitor cells are a promising strategy to compensate the progressive cell loss in neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's disease. We and others observed, that the functional differentiation of progenitors in standard differentiation medium remains limited. The aim of the present study was to optimize neuronal in vitro differentiation by mimicking the physiological shift from depolarizing to hyperpolarizing conditions that occurs during early brain development. Differentiation was initiated using a depolarizing high potassium- and low sodium-containing medium. Subsequently, the high potassium-containing medium was replaced by a hyperpolarizing medium containing low potassium and high sodium concentrations. This two-phase strategy significantly promoted the expression of neuronal markers, enhanced neurite growth, enlarged sodium inward currents, and increased action potential firing. Thus, depolarizing followed by hyperpolarizing culture conditions enable developing human neural progenitor cells to adopt more mature functional qualities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. grit.schaarschmidt@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
authors.forename: Grit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schaarschmidt
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schewtschik
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kraft
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wegner
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eilers
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D005333:Fetus; D006801:Humans; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*