title: Profiling metabolite changes in the neuronal differentiation of human striatal neural stem cells using 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Neural stem cells (NSCs) have been found to play an increasing clinical role in stroke. However, at present, it is not yet possible to noninvasively monitor their differentiation once implanted into the brain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Here, we describe the use of high-resolution H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to define a metabolite profile of undifferentiated human striatal NSCs from the STROC05 cell line and their differentiation after 3-weeks of treatment with purmorphamine.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The undifferentiated conditions were characterized by ~95% of cells expressing nestin and ~77% being Ki67(+)ve, indicating that these were still proliferating. Phosphophocholine+glycerophosphocholine (PC+GPC) as well as myo-Inositol (mI) were increased in these cells. PC+GPC and mI were markedly reduced upon differentiation, potentially serving as markers of the NSC state. Upon differentiation (~45% neurons, ~30% astrocytes, ~13% oligodendrocytes), the concentration of many metabolites decreased in absolute value. The decreasing trend of the N-acetyl-aspartate level was observed in differentiated cells when compared with NSCs. An increase in plasmalogen (enriched in myelin sheets) could potentially serve as a marker of oligodendrocytes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These metabolite characteristics of undifferentiated and differentiated NSCs provide a basis for exploration of their possible use as markers of differentiation after cell transplantation.
authors.affiliation: aCancer Research UK and EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital, Surrey Departments of bNeuroscience cNeuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, London, UK dDepartment of Anatomy and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Menoufia, Menoufia, Egypt eDepartment of Radiology, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Yuen-Li
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Gehan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: El Akabawy
authors.forename: Po-Wah
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: So
authors.forename: Bhavana S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Solanky
authors.forename: Martin O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Leach
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Modo
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002460:Cell Line; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D011522:Protons
chemical_list: D011522:Protons