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Researchers Transform Adult Cells Into Early-Stage Nerve Cells, Bypassing The Pluripotent Stem Cell Stage

A University of Wisconsin-Madison research group has converted from people and monkeys into a cell that can form a wide variety of nervous-system cells – without passing through the do-it-all stage called the induced pluripotent stem cell, or iPSC.

Bypassing the ultra-flexible iPSC stage was a key advantage, says senior author , a professor of neuroscience and neurology. “IPSC cells can generate any cell type, which could be a problem for cell-based therapy to repair damage due to disease or injury in the nervous system.”




Other researchers have bypassed the while turning skin cells into neurons and other specialized cells, Zhang acknowledges, but the new research, just published in Cell Reports, had a different goal. “Our idea was to turn skin cells to neural progenitors, cells that can produce cells relating to the neural tissue. These progenitors can be propagated in large numbers.”

The research overcomes limitations of previous efforts, Zhang says. First, the Sendai virus, a kind of cold virus, is considered safe because it does not enter the cell’s DNA, and it is killed by heat within 24 hours. (This is quite similar to the fever that raises our temperature to remove cold virus.) Second, the neural progenitors have a greater ability to grow daughter cells for research or therapy. Third, the are already well along the path toward specialization, and cannot become, say, liver or muscle cells after implantation. Finally, the progenitors can produce many more specialized cells.

The neurons that grew from the progenitor had the markings of neurons found in the rear of the brain, and that specialization can also be helpful. “For therapeutic use, it is essential to use specific types of neural progenitors,” says Zhang. “We need region-specific and function-specific neuronal types for specific neurological diseases.”



“These transplantation experiments confirmed that the reprogrammed cells indeed belong to cells of the intended brain regions and the progenitors produced the three major classes of neural cells: neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes,” Zhang says. “This proof-of-principle study highlights the possibility to generate many specialized neural progenitors for specific neurological disorders.”


University of Wisconsin-Madison