Neural Progenitor Cells Generated by Pharmaceutical Methods

Neural progenitor cells (NPCs) that are capable of self-renewing and differentiating into neural cell lineage hold great promise for both biomedical research and potential clinical application. However, conventional protocols for generating NPCs are limited to ethical and practical issues and safety.

Researchers led by Dr. PEI Gang at Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, SIBS, CAS, developed a novel strategy to generate neural progenitor cells from mouse and human somatic cells. They found that without introduction of exogenous genes, combination of chemical compounds was able to convert mouse fibroblasts and human urinary cells into desired neural progenitor cells. These chemically induced neural progenitor cells (ciNPCs) closely resemble wild-type neural progenitor cells, including morphology, expression profile, self-renewing capacity, proliferation and differentiation potential, as well as in vitro and in vivo functionality. Their study offers another strategy for neuroscience research and related regenerative medicine.

This work, entitled “Generation of neural progenitor cells by chemical cocktails and hypoxia”, was published online in Cell Research on 18 March 2014. It was supported by grants from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shanghai Municipal Commission for Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health.

Cartoon of ciNPC generation. (Image by Dr. PEI Gang’s group)