Year 3

In this reporting period, we continued to improve the acquisition of migratory medial ganglionic eminence (MGE)-type interneurons from human embryonic stem cells (hESC). We compared alternative procedures by testing MGE marker expression, and we developed additional tests to measure cell division and migration of MGE cell made from hESCs. We also extended our methods to clinical-grade hESC lines. With these optimized procedures, both research and clinical grade lines were transplanted into the rodent brain. In addition, we completed an evaluation of human fetal MGE transplants after-injection into the rodent brain. Finally, we report safety, survival, and neuronal differentiation of both hESC-MGE and human Fetal-MGE grafts at three months post-injection into the brain of the non-human primate rhesus macaque. A manuscript is in preparation concerning this work. Our work has continued to show the viability of using a cell therapy technique in the potential treatment of brain-related disease.