Department of Reconstructive Sciences, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, USA.
J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol. 2010 Mar 15;314(2):95-103. doi: 10.1002/jez.b.21321.
The neural crest (NC) is a transient population of multipotent progenitors arising at the lateral edge of the neural plate in vertebrate embryos, which then migrate throughout the body to generate diverse array of tissues such as the peripheral nervous system, skin melanocytes, and craniofacial cartilage, bone and teeth. The transient nature of neural crest stem cells make extremely challenging to study the biology of these important cells. In humans induction and differentiation of embryonic NC occurs very early, within a few weeks of fertilization giving rise to technical and ethical issues surrounding isolation of early embryonic tissues and therefore severely limiting the study of human NC cells. For that reason our current knowledge of the biology of NC mostly derives from the studies of lower organisms. Recent progress in human embryonic stem cell research provides a unique opportunity for generation of a useful source of cells for basic developmental studies. The development of cost-effective, time and labor efficient improved differentiation protocols for the production of human NC cells is a critical step toward a better understanding of NC biology.
神经嵴（NC）是一种短暂存在的多能祖细胞，起源于脊椎动物胚胎的神经板外侧缘，然后迁移到全身，产生多种组织，如外周神经系统、皮肤黑素细胞、颅面软骨、骨骼和牙齿。神经嵴干细胞的短暂特性使得研究这些重要细胞的生物学特性极具挑战性。在人类中，胚胎 NC 的诱导和分化发生得非常早，在受精后几周内就开始了，这就产生了围绕早期胚胎组织分离的技术和伦理问题，因此严重限制了对人类 NC 细胞的研究。出于这个原因，我们目前对 NC 生物学的了解主要来自于对低等生物的研究。人类胚胎干细胞研究的最新进展为生成用于基础发育研究的有用细胞源提供了独特的机会。开发经济高效、耗时和劳力高效的改进分化方案，以生产人类 NC 细胞，是更好地理解 NC 生物学的关键步骤。
