The Specification and Maturation of Nociceptive Neurons from Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Nociceptive neurons play an essential role in pain sensation by transmitting painful stimuli to the central nervous system. However, investigations of nociceptive neuron biology have been hampered by the lack of accessibility of human nociceptive neurons. Here, we describe a system for efficiently guiding human embryonic stem cells into nociceptive neurons by first inducing these cells to the neural lineage. Subsequent addition of retinoic acid and BMP4 at specific time points and concentrations yielded a high population of neural crest progenitor cells (AP2α(+), P75(+)), which further differentiated into nociceptive neurons (TRKA(+), Nav1.7(+), P2X3(+)). The overexpression of Neurogenin 1 (Neurog1) promoted the neurons to express genes related to sensory neurons (Peripherin, TrkA) and to further mature into TRPV1(+) nociceptive neurons. Importantly, the overexpression of Neurog1 increased the response of these neurons to capsaicin stimulation, a hallmark of mature functional nociceptive neurons. Taken together, this study reveals the important role that Neurog1 plays in generating functional human nociceptive neurons.