title: Pulsed DC Electric Field-Induced Differentiation of Cortical Neural Precursor Cells.
abstract: We report the differentiation of neural stem and progenitor cells solely induced by direct current (DC) pulses stimulation. Neural stem and progenitor cells in the adult mammalian brain are promising candidates for the development of therapeutic neuroregeneration strategies. The differentiation of neural stem and progenitor cells depends on various in vivo environmental factors, such as nerve growth factor and endogenous EF. In this study, we demonstrated that the morphologic and phenotypic changes of mouse neural stem and progenitor cells (mNPCs) could be induced solely by exposure to square-wave DC pulses (magnitude 300 mV/mm at frequency of 100-Hz). The DC pulse stimulation was conducted for 48 h, and the morphologic changes of mNPCs were monitored continuously. The length of primary processes and the amount of branching significantly increased after stimulation by DC pulses for 48 h. After DC pulse treatment, the mNPCs differentiated into neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes simultaneously in stem cell maintenance medium. Our results suggest that simple DC pulse treatment could control the fate of NPCs. With further studies, DC pulses may be applied to manipulate NPC differentiation and may be used for the development of therapeutic strategies that employ NPCs to treat nervous system disorders.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hui-Fang
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ying-Shan
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tang K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.|Institute of Biophotonics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Biophotonics and Molecular Imaging Research Center (BMIRC), National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Mechanical and Mechantronic Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ji-Yen
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D000067470:Cellular Reprogramming Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology*; D004560:Electricity; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D055495:Neurogenesis; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000166:cytology