Rapid protocol for differentiation of iPSCs into dopaminergic neurons?
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Efficient cell specific differentiation systems for iPSC
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Company: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.
Job Title: Director of Research and Development
Answer
Rapid in this case may not be as important as efficient. The developmental biology of TH+ neurons is not understood well enough to ‘speed up’ the development of different types of neurons including dopaminergic or cortical motor neurons. A recent study found that Dibutyryl cyclic-AMP (dbcAMP) was shown to induce up to 85% in vitro differentiation of neural stem cells in to neurons, but still required the same differentiation timeline as that of in vivo human brain development of these neurons. When looking for an efficient method to differentiate, you may consider starting with enriched dopaminergic precursor cells. It has been shown that the better the quantity of enriched precursors (for example FoxA2+/Lmx1a+) the better the efficiency of the final phenotype for dopaminergic neurons ( for example, TH+/Nurr1+?FoxA2+) which in turn creates a starting population which is enriched for desired lineages.