Yan R T, Wang S Z
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL 35233, USA.
Neurosci Lett. 2000 Feb 18;280(2):83-6. doi: 10.1016/s0304-3940(99)01003-4.
Coaxing plastic, non-neuronal cells to transdifferentiate into a particular type of neurons might have clinical applications. Previously we reported that neuroD induces transdifferentiation of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells derived from day-6 chick embryos into cells that resemble young photoreceptor cells. These cells also express visinin, a gene expressed early during cone photoreceptor differentiation. Further characterization showed that the transdifferentiated cells express a number of photoreceptor genes, including interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein, the alpha-subunit of phosphodiesterase, and opsin genes encoding rhodopsin, the red, the green, and the blue visual pigments. Our data demonstrate that neuroD can reprogram RPE to become photoreceptor cells with substantial differentiation, and suggest the possibility of generating photoreceptor cells from RPE using neuroD as a molecular trigger.
诱导可塑性的非神经元细胞转分化为特定类型的神经元可能具有临床应用价值。此前我们报道过，NeuroD可诱导源自6日龄鸡胚的视网膜色素上皮（RPE）细胞转分化为类似年轻光感受器细胞的细胞。这些细胞还表达视锥蛋白，这是一种在视锥光感受器分化早期表达的基因。进一步的特征分析表明，转分化细胞表达多种光感受器基因，包括光感受器间类视黄醇结合蛋白、磷酸二酯酶的α亚基，以及编码视紫红质、红色、绿色和蓝色视觉色素的视蛋白基因。我们的数据表明，NeuroD可将RPE重编程为具有显著分化的光感受器细胞，并提示了利用NeuroD作为分子触发因素从RPE生成光感受器细胞的可能性。
