Axonal regeneration. Systemic administration of epothilone B promotes axon regeneration after spinal cord injury.

After central nervous system (CNS) injury, inhibitory factors in the lesion scar and poor axon growth potential prevent axon regeneration. Microtubule stabilization reduces scarring and promotes axon growth. However, the cellular mechanisms of this dual effect remain unclear.

CXCL10 triggers early microglial activation in the cuprizone model.

A broad spectrum of diseases is characterized by myelin abnormalities and/or oligodendrocyte pathology. In most, if not all, of these diseases, early activation of microglia occurs. Our knowledge regarding the factors triggering early microglia activation is, however, incomplete.

Computational deconvolution of genome wide expression data from Parkinson's and Huntington's disease brain tissues using population-specific expression analysis.

The characterization of molecular changes in diseased tissues gives insight into pathophysiological mechanisms and is important for therapeutic development. Genome-wide gene expression analysis has proven valuable for identifying biological processes in neurodegenerative diseases using post mortem human brain tissue and numerous datasets are publically available. However, many studies utilize heterogeneous tissue samples consisting of multiple cell types, all of which contribute to global gene expression values, confounding biological interpretation of the data.

Sonic hedgehog signaling in the development of the mouse hypothalamus.

The expression pattern of Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) in the developing hypothalamus changes over time. Shh is initially expressed in the prechordal mesoderm and later in the hypothalamic neuroepithelium-first medially, and then in two off-medial domains. This dynamic expression suggests that Shh might regulate several aspects of hypothalamic development.

Genetic control of midbrain dopaminergic neuron development.

Unlabelled: Midbrain dopaminergic neurons are involved in regulating motor control, reward behavior, and cognition. Degeneration or dysfunction of midbrain dopaminergic neurons is implicated in several neuropsychiatric disorders such as Parkinson's disease, substance use disorders, depression, and schizophrenia. Understanding the developmental processes that generate midbrain dopaminergic neurons will facilitate the generation of dopaminergic neurons from stem cells for cell replacement therapies to substitute degenerating cells in Parkinson's disease patients and will forward our understanding on how functional diversity of dopaminergic neurons in the adult brain is established.

Characterization of a novel cell penetrating peptide derived from human Oct4.

Background: Oct4 is a transcription factor that plays a major role for the preservation of the pluripotent state in embryonic stem cells as well as for efficient reprogramming of somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) or other progenitors. Protein-based reprogramming methods mainly rely on the addition of a fused cell penetrating peptide. This study describes that Oct4 inherently carries a protein transduction domain, which can translocate into human and mouse cells.

DNMT-dependent suppression of microRNA regulates the induction of GBM tumor-propagating phenotype by Oct4 and Sox2.

Cancer stem-like cells represent poorly differentiated multipotent tumor-propagating cells that contribute disproportionately to therapeutic resistance and tumor recurrence. Transcriptional mechanisms that control the phenotypic conversion of tumor cells lacking tumor-propagating potential to tumor-propagating stem-like cells remain obscure. Here we show that the reprogramming transcription factors Oct4 and Sox2 induce glioblastoma cells to become stem-like and tumor-propagating via a mechanism involving direct DNA methyl transferase (DNMT) promoter transactivation, resulting in global DNA methylation- and DNMT-dependent downregulation of multiple microRNAs (miRNAs).

A three-dimensional human neural cell culture model of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, characterized by two pathological hallmarks: amyloid-β plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease posits that the excessive accumulation of amyloid-β peptide leads to neurofibrillary tangles composed of aggregated hyperphosphorylated tau. However, to date, no single disease model has serially linked these two pathological events using human neuronal cells.

The role of microRNAs in human neural stem cells, neuronal differentiation and subtype specification.

The impressive neuronal diversity found within the nervous system emerges from a limited pool of neural progenitor cells that proceed through different gene expression programs to acquire distinct cell fates. Here, we review recent evidence indicating that microRNAs (miRNAs) are critically involved in conferring neural cell identities during neural induction, neuronal differentiation and subtype specification. Several studies have shown that miRNAs act in concert with other gene regulatory factors and genetic switches to regulate the spatial and temporal expression profiles of important cell fate determinants.

Neurodegeneration by activation of the microglial complement-phagosome pathway.

Systemic inflammatory reactions have been postulated to exacerbate neurodegenerative diseases via microglial activation. We now demonstrate in vivo that repeated systemic challenge of mice over four consecutive days with bacterial LPS maintained an elevated microglial inflammatory phenotype and induced loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. The same total cumulative LPS dose given within a single application did not induce neurodegeneration.

Sensing the neuronal glycocalyx by glial sialic acid binding immunoglobulin-like lectins.

Sialic acid binding immunoglobulin-like lectins (Siglecs) are cell surface receptors of microglia and oligodendrocytes that recognize the sialic acid cap of healthy neurons and neighboring glial cells. Upon ligand binding, Siglecs typically signal through an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibition motif (ITIM) to keep the cell in a homeostatic status and support healthy neighboring cells. Siglecs can be divided into two groups; the first, being conserved among different species.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells improve recovery in stroke-injured aged rats.

Purpose: Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) improve behavior and form neurons after implantation into the stroke-injured adult rodent brain. How the aged brain responds to grafted iPSCs is unknown. We determined survival and differentiation of grafted human fibroblast-derived iPSCs and their ability to improve recovery in aged rats after stroke.

Siglec functions of microglia.

Microglia are the resident immune cells of the central nervous system. They can sense intact or lesioned cells and then respond in an appropriate way. Therefore, microglia need recognition receptors that lead to either the activation or the inhibition of the immune response pathways.

Self-organization of neural tissue architectures from pluripotent stem cells.

Despite being a subject of intensive research, the mechanisms underlying the formation of neural tissue architectures during development of the central nervous system remain largely enigmatic. So far, studies into neural pattern formation have been restricted mainly to animal experiments. With the advent of pluripotent stem cells it has become possible to explore early steps of nervous system development in vitro.

Cell-permeant recombinant Nanog protein promotes pluripotency by inhibiting endodermal specification.

A comprehensive understanding of the functional network of transcription factors establishing and maintaining pluripotency is key for the development of biomedical applications of stem cells. Nanog plays an important role in early development and is essential to induce natural pluripotency in embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Inducible gain-of-function systems allowing a precise control over time and dosage of Nanog activity would be highly desirable to study its vital role in the establishment and maintenance of pluripotency at molecular level.

Derivation and maintenance of murine trophoblast stem cells under defined conditions.

Trophoblast stem cells (TSCs) are in vitro equivalents to the precursor cells of the placenta. TSCs are cultured in serum-rich medium with fibroblast growth factor 4, heparin, and embryonic-fibroblast-conditioned medium. Here, we developed a simple medium consisting of ten chemically defined ingredients for culture of TSCs on Matrigel or synthetic substrates, named TX medium.

Reelin and CXCL12 regulate distinct migratory behaviors during the development of the dopaminergic system.

The proper functioning of the dopaminergic system requires the coordinated formation of projections extending from dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN), ventral tegmental area (VTA) and retrorubral field to a wide array of forebrain targets including the striatum, nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex. The mechanisms controlling the assembly of these distinct dopaminergic cell clusters are not well understood. Here, we have investigated in detail the migratory behavior of dopaminergic neurons giving rise to either the SN or the medial VTA using genetic inducible fate mapping, ultramicroscopy, time-lapse imaging, slice culture and analysis of mouse mutants.

APP processing in human pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons is resistant to NSAID-based γ-secretase modulation.

Increasing evidence suggests that elevated Aβ42 fractions in the brain cause Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although γ-secretase modulators (GSMs), including a set of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), were found to lower Aβ42 in various model systems, NSAID-based GSMs proved to be surprisingly inefficient in human clinical trials. Reasoning that the nonhuman and nonneuronal cells typically used in pharmaceutical compound validation might not adequately reflect the drug responses of human neurons, we used human pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons from AD patients and unaffected donors to explore the efficacy of NSAID-based γ-secretase modulation.

Auto-attraction of neural precursors and their neuronal progeny impairs neuronal migration.

Limited neuronal migration into host brain tissue is a key challenge in neural transplantation. We found that one important mechanism underlying this phenomenon is an intrinsic chemotactic interaction between the grafted neural precursor cells (NPCs) and their neuronal progeny. NPCs secrete the receptor tyrosine kinase ligands FGF2 and VEGF, which act as chemoattractants for neurons.

Microglial CD33-related Siglec-E inhibits neurotoxicity by preventing the phagocytosis-associated oxidative burst.

Sialic acid-binding Ig-like lectins (Siglecs) are members of the Ig superfamily that recognize sialic acid residues of glycoproteins. Siglec-E is a mouse CD33-related Siglec that preferentially binds to sialic acid residues of the cellular glycocalyx. Here, we demonstrate gene transcription and protein expression of Siglec-E by cultured mouse microglia.

Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans potently inhibit invasion and serve as a central organizer of the brain tumor microenvironment.

Glioblastoma (GBM) remains the most pervasive and lethal of all brain malignancies. One factor that contributes to this poor prognosis is the highly invasive character of the tumor. GBM is characterized by microscopic infiltration of tumor cells throughout the brain, whereas non-neural metastases, as well as select lower grade gliomas, develop as self-contained and clearly delineated lesions.

Leveling Waddington: the emergence of direct programming and the loss of cell fate hierarchies.

For decades, Waddington's concept of the 'epigenetic landscape' has served as an educative hierarchical model to illustrate the progressive restriction of cell differentiation potential during normal development. While still being highly valuable in the context of normal development, the Waddington model falls short of accommodating recent breakthroughs in cell programming. The advent of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and advances in direct cell fate conversion (also known as transdifferentiation) suggest that somatic and pluripotent cell fates can be interconverted without transiting through distinct hierarchies.

Unique transcriptome signature of mouse microglia.

Microglial cells can be derived directly from the dissociated brain tissue by sorting procedures, from postnatal glial cultures by mechanic isolation or from pluripotent stem cells by differentiation. The detailed molecular phenotype of microglia from different sources is still unclear. Here, we performed a whole transcriptome analysis of flow cytometry-sorted microglia, primary postnatal cultured microglia, embryonic stem cell derived microglia (ESdM), and other cell types.

Roadmap to cellular reprogramming--manipulating transcriptional networks with DNA, RNA, proteins and small molecules.

Recent reports demonstrate that the plasticity of mammalian somatic cells is much higher than previously assumed and that ectopic expression of transcription factors may have the potential to induce the conversion of any cell type into another. Fibroblast cells can be converted into embryonic stem cell-like cells, neural cells, cardiomyocytes, macrophage-like cells as well as blood progenitors. Additionally, the conversion of astrocytes into neurons or neural stem cells into monocytes has been demonstrated.

Disease-specific iPS cell models in neuroscience.

Neurodegenerative diseases are a heterogeneous group of sporadic or familial disorders of the nervous system that mostly lead to a progressive loss of neural cells. A major challenge in studying the molecular pathomechanisms underlying these disorders is the limited experimental access to disease-affected human nervous system tissue. In addition, considering that the molecular disease initiation occurs years or decades before the symptomatic onset of a medical condition, these tissues mostly reflect only the final phase of the disease.