Derived from early blastocyst embryos, human embryonic stem cells (hESC) are self-renewable cells with pluripotency. Under special culture conditions, neural cells can be generated from hESC including glial cells, functional neurons, and oligodendrocytes. To avoid other lineage cells as contaminants, the neural progenitor (NP) cell population is necessary to the neural lineage and has been served as an unlimited lineage-restricted cell source for therapeutic and research.
Due to the stochastic nature of spontaneously differentiating hESC, the use of certain factors is important to direct hESC differentiation specifically to neural lineage. Once the NP cells are generated, the expression of SOX2 will be maintained and other neuroepithelial markers are also beginning to express, such as SOX1, SOX3, Nestin, PSA-NCAM, and MUSASHI-1. What's more, the formation of neural rosettes is the morphologic marker of hESC differentiation to neural cells.
Learn more: neural stem cell research
