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Updated: Jul 10, 2026
Functional Evaluation of Biological Neurotoxins in Networked Cultures of Stem Cell-derived Central Nervous System Neurons
Published on: February 5, 2015
Characterization of neurons differentiated from mouse embryonic stem cells using conditioned medium of dorsal root
Ayako Kitazawa1, Norio Shimizu
1Graduate School of Life Sciences, Toyo University, 1-1-1 Izumino, Itakura-machi, Ora-gun, Gunma 374-0193, Japan.
Abstract:
Mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells have the pluripotent ability to differentiate in vitro into various cell lineages, including neurons. Adding chick dorsal root ganglion (DRG) conditioned medium (CM) to the culture medium promotes the differentiation of ES cells into neurons. We determined the types of neurons that differentiate from ES cells. The addition of DRG-CM caused nearly half of all ES cells on the periphery of the colony sphere to differentiate into neurons. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that the neurons that differentiated from ES cells were mainly motor, GABAergic, serotonergic, and cholinergic neurons. Of particular note, flow cytometry showed that approximately 50% of betaIII-tubulin-positive neurons were motor neurons. This indicates that DRG-CM induces ES cells to differentiate into motor neurons as target of DRG neurons (sensory neurons).
