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Dopaminergic phenotype of hNT cells in vitro
T Zigova1, L F Barroso, A E Willing
1Department of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USA. tzigova@com1.med.usf.edu
Abstract:
We investigated the catecholaminergic nature of cultured hNT neurons previously treated either for 4 or 5 weeks with retinoic acid (RA). There were significantly more tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive neurons (60%) in cultures treated for 4 weeks with RA compared to 5 week-treated cultures (=15%). Furthermore, numerous TH-positive hNT cells were also immunoreactive to dopamine transporter (DAT), dopamine receptor (D2) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (AHD-2), an enzyme exclusively expressed by dopaminergic (DA) ventral mesencephalic (VM) precursors. Thus this cell line has all the necessary cellular machinery to produce functional DA neurons and therefore is a good alternative tissue source to fetal VM.