title: A zebrafish mosaic assay to study mammalian stem cells in real time in vivo.
abstract: The differentiation potentials of stem cells have been evaluated by various in vivo and in vitro assays. However, these assays have different limitations hindering efficient study of mammalian stem cells. Here we describe a rapid and powerful mosaic assay to study the differentiation potentials of stem cells in real time in vivo by using zebrafish embryo. We transplanted mouse neural stem cells into zebrafish embryos at different developmental stages and found that they mainly formed neural tissues while occasionally trans-differentiated into mesoderm- and endoderm-derived tissues. Because zebrafish embryo is transparent, the behaviors of transplanted mouse stem cells can be easily tracked in a real-time manner and at single-cell resolution. We expect that this assay may be widely applied to explore the in vivo behaviors of any stem cells available.
authors.affiliation: College of life Science and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: College of life Science and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Meilin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: College of life Science and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Chaoran
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: College of life Science and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Yonggang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of life Science and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. huhuozhen_sc@163.com.
authors.forename: Huozhen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: College of life Science and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Shaohua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D054338:Cell Transdifferentiation; D004707:Endoderm / Q000166:cytology; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000166:cytology; D051379:Mice; D009030:Mosaicism; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D015027:Zebrafish
keywords: Neural stem cell; Trans-differentiation; Transplantation; Zebrafish chimera