Transdifferentiation of rat fetal brain stem cells into penile smooth muscle cells.

Objectives: To evaluate whether rat fetal brain stem cells can be induced to acquire cell fates outside the nervous system, hypothesising that cell-based replacement therapy with stem cells can aid in the regeneration of penile smooth musculature and might help to attenuate organic erectile dysfunction (ED), as the degeneration of penile smooth muscle cells leading to subsequent impairment of function is important in organic ED.

Materials And Methods: Fetal brain stem cells (FBSCs) from embryonal 12-day Fisher 344 rats were isolated and characterized. For in vitro studies, undifferentiated FBSCs were cultured for 21 days in either N2 media (control) or N2 media conditioned in rat penile smooth muscle cell culture.

Selective differentiation of central nervous system-derived stem cells in response to cues from specific regions of the developing brain.

Object: Each region of the brain is distinguished by specific and distinct markers and functions. The authors hypothesized that each region possesses unique trophic properties that dictate and maintain its development. To test this hypothesis, they isolated central nervous system (CNS) stem cells from fetal rodents, and these rat CNS-derived stem cells (RSCs) were placed in coculture with primary cultures of the developing neonatal hippocampus and hypothalamus to determine whether region-specific primary cells would direct the differentiation of stem cells in a region-specific manner.

Brain stem cells adopt a pituitary fate after implantation into the adult rodent pituitary gland.

Fetal brain stem cells (RSCs) have been induced to express pituitary phenotypes in vitro in co-cultures with GH(3) cells and by exposure to GH(3)-conditioned media. In the current studies, we graft RSCs into the pituitary glands of adult rat to investigate whether grafted RSCs can be induced by the native gland to acquire pituitary properties. Grafted cells survive for 4 weeks and express Pit-1, GH, FSH, LH, ACTH, TSH and to a lesser extent PRL indicating that inductive influences are operative in vivo as well.

Fetal brain progenitor cells transdifferentiate to fates outside the nervous system.

Central nervous system stem cells give rise to neurons and glia when exposed to specific trophic factors. In our studies with rat fetal brain-derived stem cells (RSCs), we showed that they could be induced to express the developmentally regulated transcription factors and cell markers characteristic of cells derived from another germ layer, e.g.