Astrocytes play an important role in maintaining brain homeostasis and their dysfunction is involved in a number of neurological disorders. An accessible source of astrocytes is essential to model neurological diseases and potential cell therapy approaches. Cell reprogramming techniques offer possibilities to reprogram terminally differentiated cells into other cell types. By overexpressing the three astrocytic transcription factors NFIA, NFIB, and SOX9, we showed that it is possible to directly transdifferentiate fibroblasts into functional astrocytes. These induced astrocytes (iAstrocytes) express glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and S100 calcium binding protein B (S100B), as well as other astrocytic markers. Moreover, electrophysiological properties indicate that iAstrocytes are functionally comparable to native brain astrocytes. Here we describe an optimized protocol to generate iAstrocytes starting from skin fibroblasts and this approach can be adapted for a wide range of somatic cell types.
Direct Cell Reprogramming of Mouse Fibroblasts into Functional Astrocytes Using Lentiviral Overexpression of the Transcription Factors NFIA, NFIB, and SOX9 / Qiu, B.; de Vries, R. J.; Caiazzo, M.. - 2352:(2021), pp. 31-43. [10.1007/978-1-0716-1601-7_3]
Direct Cell Reprogramming of Mouse Fibroblasts into Functional Astrocytes Using Lentiviral Overexpression of the Transcription Factors NFIA, NFIB, and SOX9
Caiazzo M.
Ultimo
Writing – Review & Editing
2021
Abstract
Astrocytes play an important role in maintaining brain homeostasis and their dysfunction is involved in a number of neurological disorders. An accessible source of astrocytes is essential to model neurological diseases and potential cell therapy approaches. Cell reprogramming techniques offer possibilities to reprogram terminally differentiated cells into other cell types. By overexpressing the three astrocytic transcription factors NFIA, NFIB, and SOX9, we showed that it is possible to directly transdifferentiate fibroblasts into functional astrocytes. These induced astrocytes (iAstrocytes) express glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and S100 calcium binding protein B (S100B), as well as other astrocytic markers. Moreover, electrophysiological properties indicate that iAstrocytes are functionally comparable to native brain astrocytes. Here we describe an optimized protocol to generate iAstrocytes starting from skin fibroblasts and this approach can be adapted for a wide range of somatic cell types.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
