Molecular and cellular features of murine craniofacial and trunk neural crest cells as stem cell-like cells

The outstanding differentiation capacities and easier access from adult tissues, cells derived from neural crest cells (NCCs) have fascinated scientists in developmental biology and regenerative medicine. Differentiation potentials of NCCs are known to depend on their originating regions. Here, we report differential molecular features between craniofacial (cNCCs) and trunk (tNCCs) NCCs by analyzing transcription profiles and sphere forming assays of NCCs from P0-Cre/floxed-EGFP mouse embryos. We identified up-regulation of genes linked to carcinogenesis in cNCCs that were not previously reported to be related to NCCs, which was considered to be, an interesting feature in regard with carcinogenic potentials of NCCs such as melanoma and neuroblastoma. Wnt signal related genes were statistically up-regulated in cNCCs, also suggesting potential involvement of cNCCs in carcinogenesis. We also noticed intense expression of mesenchymal and neuronal markers in cNCCs and tNCCs, respectively. Consistent results were obtained from in vitro sphere-forming and differentiation assays. These results were in accordance with previous notion about differential potentials of cNCCs and tNCCs. We thus propose that sorting NCCs from P0-Cre/floxed-EGFP mice might be useful for the basic and translational research of NCCs. Furthermore, these newly-identified genes up-regulated in cNCC would provide helpful information on NC-originating tumors, developmental disorders in NCC derivatives, and potential applications of NCCs in regenerative medicine.