Efficient differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into functional cerebellar-like cells.

The cerebellum has critical roles in motor and sensory learning and motor coordination. Many cerebellum-related disorders indicate cell therapy as a possible treatment of neural loss. Here we show that application of inductive signals involved in early patterning of the cerebellar region followed by application of different factors directs human embryonic stem cell differentiation into cerebellar-like cells such as granule neurons, Purkinje cells, interneuron, and glial cells.