Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, Brazil.
J Mol Neurosci. 2011 Jul;44(3):141-6. doi: 10.1007/s12031-010-9417-y. Epub 2010 Jul 9.
Neural differentiation has been extensively studied in vitro in a model termed neurospheres, which consists of aggregates of neural progenitor cells. Previous studies suggest that they have a great potential for the treatment of neurological disorders. One of the major challenges for scientists is to control cell fate and develop ideal culture conditions for neurosphere expansion in vitro, without altering their features. Similar to human neural progenitors, rat neurospheres cultured in the absence of epidermal and fibroblast growth factors for a short period increased the levels of β-3 tubulin and decreased the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein and nestin, compared to neurospheres cultured in the presence of these factors. In this work, we show that rat neurospheres cultured in suspension under mitogen-free condition presented significant higher expression of P2X2 and P2X6 receptor subunits, when compared to cells cultured in the presence of growth factors, suggesting a direct relationship between P2X2/6 receptor expression and induction of neuronal differentiation in mitogen-free cultured rat neurospheres.
神经分化在体外的神经球模型中得到了广泛研究，该模型由神经祖细胞的聚集物组成。先前的研究表明，它们在治疗神经紊乱方面具有很大的潜力。科学家面临的主要挑战之一是控制细胞命运，并开发理想的体外神经球扩增培养条件，而不改变其特性。与人类神经祖细胞类似，在无表皮生长因子和纤维母细胞生长因子的情况下短时间培养的大鼠神经球，与在存在这些因子的情况下培养的神经球相比，β-3 微管蛋白的水平增加，神经胶质纤维酸性蛋白和巢蛋白的表达减少。在这项工作中，我们表明，在无丝分裂原条件下悬浮培养的大鼠神经球，与在生长因子存在的情况下培养的细胞相比，P2X2 和 P2X6 受体亚基的表达显著增加，这表明 P2X2/6 受体表达与无丝分裂原培养的大鼠神经球中诱导神经元分化之间存在直接关系。
