Overview of Methods to Differentiate Sympathetic Neurons from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Sympathetic neurons are crucial for maintenance of body homeostasis and regulation of all organs. Diseases can arise from malfunction of sympathetic neurons, including malignancies, hypertension, and genetic disorders. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) allow modeling of human diseases and the in-depth study of pathologies of specific cell types associated with such disorders. Advances in the ability to differentiate hPSCs in vitro has allowed the generation of specific cell types such as sympathetic neurons, which provides the novel opportunity to study diseases affecting the sympathetic nervous system in the human context. Here, we compare selected recent publications that have achieved the goal of generating sympathetic neurons from hPSCs. We discuss strengths and weaknesses of each approach and debate future improvements and the next steps for using these neurons to better our understanding of sympathetic neuron disorders and their treatments. © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.