Single Transcription Factor-Based Differentiation Allowing Fast and Efficient Oligodendrocyte Generation via SOX10 Overexpression.

Oligodendrocytes are the main glial cell type in the central nervous system supporting the axonal part of neurons via myelin and lactate delivery. Both the conductive myelin formation and the energy support via lactate can be affected in diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, respectively. Therefore, human disease modeling is needed to gain more mechanistic insights to drive drug discovery research. Here, patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) serve as a necessary tool providing an infinite cell source for patient-specific disease modeling, which allows investigation of oligodendrocyte involvement in human disease.Small molecule-based differentiation protocols to generate oligodendrocytes from pluripotent stem cells can last more than 90 days. Here, we provide a transcription factor-based, fast and efficient protocol for generating O4 oligodendrocytes in just 20-24 days. After a neural induction phase of 8-12 days, SOX10 is overexpressed either with the use of lentiviral vectors or via engineered iPSCs, which inducibly overexpress SOX10 after doxycycline addition. Using this last method, a pure O4 cell population is achieved after keeping the SOX10-overexpressing neural stem cells in culture for an additional 10 days. Furthermore, these O4 cells can be co-cultured with iPSC-derived cortical neurons in 384-well format, allowing pro-myelinating drug screens. In conclusion, we provide a fast and efficient oligodendrocyte differentiation protocol allowing both in vitro human disease modeling and a high-throughput co-culture system for drug discovery.