title: Specification of region-specific neurons including forebrain glutamatergic neurons from human induced pluripotent stem cells.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Directed differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) into functional, region-specific neural cells is a key step to realizing their therapeutic promise to treat various neural disorders, which awaits detailed elucidation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We analyzed neural differentiation from various hiPSC lines generated by others and ourselves. Although heterogeneity in efficiency of neuroepithelial (NE) cell differentiation was observed among different hiPSC lines, the NE differentiation process resembles that from human embryonic stem cells (hESC) in morphology, timing, transcriptional profile, and requirement for FGF signaling. NE cells differentiated from hiPSC, like those from hESC, can also form rostral phenotypes by default, and form the midbrain or spinal progenitors upon caudalization by morphogens. The rostrocaudal neural progenitors can further mature to develop forebrain glutamatergic projection neurons, midbrain dopaminergic neurons, and spinal motor neurons, respectively. Typical ion channels and action potentials were recorded in the hiPSC-derived neurons.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results demonstrate that hiPSC, regardless of how they were derived, can differentiate into a spectrum of rostrocaudal neurons with functionality, which supports the considerable value of hiPSC for study and treatment of patient-specific neural disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology, University of Connecticut Stem Cell Institute, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, United States of America.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Kristen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Martins-Taylor
authors.forename: Xiaofang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jung Woo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Shuning
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kronenberg
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lichtler
authors.forename: Hui-Xia
authors.initials: HX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Fang-Ping
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Lixia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yue
authors.forename: Xue-Jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ren-He
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D057026:Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000166:cytology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D018698:Glutamic Acid