tretinoin and Brain-Damage--Chronic

We induced neural cells by treating cynomolgus monkey embryonic stem (ES) cells with retinoic acid. The treated cells mainly expressed betaIIItubulin. They further differentiated into neurons expressing neurofilament middle chain (NFM) in elongated axons. Half of the cells differentiated into Islet1+ motoneurons in vitro. The monkey ES-derived neural cells were transplanted to hemiplegic mice with experimental brain injury mimicking stroke. The neural cells that had grafted into periventricular area of the mice distributed extensively over the injured cortex. Some of the transplanted cells expressed the neural stem/progenitor marker nestin 2 days after transplantation. The cells expressed markers characteristic of mature motoneurons 28 days after transplantation. Mice with the neural cell graft gradually recovered motor function, whereas control animals remained hemiplegic. This is the first demonstration that neural cells derived from nonhuman primate ES cells have the ability to restore motor function in an animal model of brain injury.

Topics: Animals; Biomarkers; Brain Damage, Chronic; Cell Differentiation; Cell Line; Cell Movement; Cerebral Infarction; Disease Models, Animal; Female; Graft Survival; Hemiplegia; Intermediate Filament Proteins; Macaca fascicularis; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Nerve Tissue Proteins; Nestin; Neurofilament Proteins; Neurons; Recovery of Function; Stem Cell Transplantation; Stem Cells; Stroke; Treatment Outcome; Tretinoin