Year 3

Summary of Research Progress:
Our research aims to identify the optimal culture conditions and the best hESC lines for the derivation of nerve lineage cells in therapeutic cell transplantation. Toward this goal, we propose to compare the behavior of nerve cell differentiation in multiple lines of hESCs in one laboratory setting. We will further characterize molecular changes during directed cell differentiation and identify the cells that exhibit a pattern of DNA modification, namely DNA methylation, similar to primary neural cells in human brain. In the case of DNA hypermethylation, pharmacological treatment and genetic manipulation will be applied to correct the methylation defects by blocking enzymes involved in DNA methylation. Finally, cell transplantation in a mouse stroke model will be used to study the mechanisms and efficacy of different types of hESC-derived neural cells in neural repair.

In the past year, we have made great progress in converting several lines of human stem cells into nerve cells. We have compared the property of different lines of nerve cells such as the efficiency of nerve cell differentiation and the preferential production of specific nerve cells in culture. We also begin to produce and characterize a new type of human stem cells, namely induced pluripotent cells that are obtained by converting somatic cells into stem cell through reprogramming. We also test the pattern of DNA methylation in different lines of human stem cells. By engineering stem cells carrying different levels of methylation, we aim to find the optimal levels of DNA methylation for efficient nerve cell differentiation. Finally, we also made excellent progress on the procedure of cell transplantation. We have found a suitable substrate that can be used to enhance neuronal survival after cell transplantation and we expect to publish a research paper in this new method of cell transplantation.