New Approach To Successfully Purify And Characterize Human Neural Stem Cells

By Author: Hannah Cole
Total Articles: 1
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Human brain has approximately 171 billion cells, of which slightly more than half (approximately 86 billion) are nerve cells. These 86 billion nerve cells are a diverse cell population with hundreds of specialized types and functions, but all originate from three neural cell lineages--neurons, oligodendrocytes and astrocytes. All three cell lineages originate from a pool of neural stem and progenitor radial glia cells that undergo prenatal gestation during the second trimester rapid development. Understanding these radial glial cells, how they differentiate into these three cell lineages, and how these three lineages differentiate into diverse neural cells will have enormous benefits for medical research.

Fluorescence-activated cell sorting is used to isolate cell types in brain tissue from single-cell suspensions based on cell surface immunophenotype. Cells are indexed (fluorescence recording) and separated from each other. These isolated cells were subjected to single-cell RNA sequencing to capture their individual transcriptomes. By combining surface marker profiles with indexes and transcriptomes, the authors now ...
... have a map of each cell type that can be used for later identification. They also measured the expression of an additional 352 surface markers that were not used in the original isolation protocol and that might better differentiate cells in the future.

Indexed sorting data allowed each sequenced cell to be mapped to its native immunophenotype, and these authors found that RNA and cell surface protein expression were not always correlated. Some cells that look similar may have different functions. This strategy yields functionally similar sorted cell populations, allowing specific neural stem and progenitor cell types to be isolated for analysis.

The researchers identified 10 neural stem/progenitor cell types and characterized the behavior of these cells by transplanting them directly into the brains of neonatal immunodeficient mice. After 6 months, these cells migrated and colonized extensively throughout the brain and differentiated into all three major neural cell lineages. By looking at how and where individual cell types spread, they can make some preliminary inferences about suitable sites of activity. Although the experiment was intended only as a feasibility test of the method, they did identify a unique functional characterization of bipotent glial progenitor cells that had not been described before.

The researchers successfully performed a proof-of-concept and found that different cell types could be isolated from the developing brain based on cell surface markers. If the methods used can be generalized to other stem cell types, scientists' understanding of the specific functions, mechanisms and layers of roles that cells play in the brain or other organs could explode. Creative Bioarray has extensive experience in characterizing cGMP cell banks for biopharmaceutical production, offering a broad range of cell line characterization services that allow researchers to efficiently streamline cGMP-compliant manufacturing and accelerate successful commercialization. Creative Bioarray's reporting complies with FDA and EMA regulatory requirements for pharmaceuticals for human use (ICH Guidelines Q5B and Q5D, CTD Quality Module.