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Turning teratocarcinoma cells into neurons: rapid differentiation of NT-2 cells in floating spheres

Paquet-Durand, Francois LU ; Tan, Saime and Bicker, Gerd (2003) In Developmental Brain Research 142(2). p.161-167
Abstract
Cells from the human teratocarcinoma line NTera-2 can be induced to terminally differentiate into postmitotic neurons when treated with retinoic acid. However, this differentiation process is rather time consuming as it takes between 42 and 54 days. Here, we propose a modified differentiation protocol which reduces the time needed for differentiation considerably without compromising the quantity of the neurons obtained. The introduction of a proliferation step as free floating cell spheres cuts the total time needed to obtain high yields of purified NT-2 neurons to about 24-28 days. The cells obtained show neuronal morphology and migrate to form ganglion-like cell conglomerates. Differentiated cells express neuronal polarity markers such... (More)
Cells from the human teratocarcinoma line NTera-2 can be induced to terminally differentiate into postmitotic neurons when treated with retinoic acid. However, this differentiation process is rather time consuming as it takes between 42 and 54 days. Here, we propose a modified differentiation protocol which reduces the time needed for differentiation considerably without compromising the quantity of the neurons obtained. The introduction of a proliferation step as free floating cell spheres cuts the total time needed to obtain high yields of purified NT-2 neurons to about 24-28 days. The cells obtained show neuronal morphology and migrate to form ganglion-like cell conglomerates. Differentiated cells express neuronal polarity markers such as the cytoskeleton associated proteins MAP2 and Tau. Moreover, the generation of neurons in sphere cultures induced immunoreactivity to the ELAV-like neuronal RNA-binding proteins HuC/D, which have been implicated in mechanisms of nerve cell differentiation. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Developmental Brain Research
volume
142
issue
2
pages
161 - 167
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • pmid:12711367
  • scopus:0038292053
ISSN
0165-3806
DOI
10.1016/S0165-3806(03)00065-8
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
6f0783cd-a25a-41b7-aa71-c5ee3c36de39 (old id 1127553)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 16:18:55
date last changed
2022-01-28 18:50:25
@article{6f0783cd-a25a-41b7-aa71-c5ee3c36de39,
  abstract     = {{Cells from the human teratocarcinoma line NTera-2 can be induced to terminally differentiate into postmitotic neurons when treated with retinoic acid. However, this differentiation process is rather time consuming as it takes between 42 and 54 days. Here, we propose a modified differentiation protocol which reduces the time needed for differentiation considerably without compromising the quantity of the neurons obtained. The introduction of a proliferation step as free floating cell spheres cuts the total time needed to obtain high yields of purified NT-2 neurons to about 24-28 days. The cells obtained show neuronal morphology and migrate to form ganglion-like cell conglomerates. Differentiated cells express neuronal polarity markers such as the cytoskeleton associated proteins MAP2 and Tau. Moreover, the generation of neurons in sphere cultures induced immunoreactivity to the ELAV-like neuronal RNA-binding proteins HuC/D, which have been implicated in mechanisms of nerve cell differentiation.}},
  author       = {{Paquet-Durand, Francois and Tan, Saime and Bicker, Gerd}},
  issn         = {{0165-3806}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{161--167}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Developmental Brain Research}},
  title        = {{Turning teratocarcinoma cells into neurons: rapid differentiation of NT-2 cells in floating spheres}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0165-3806(03)00065-8}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/S0165-3806(03)00065-8}},
  volume       = {{142}},
  year         = {{2003}},
}