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Taurine 9 pp 457–472Cite as

Taurine Enhances Proliferation and Promotes Neuronal Specification of Murine and Human Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells

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Part of the Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology book series (AEMB,volume 803)

Abstract

Brain development is impaired in taurine deficient animals, showing neuronal delayed maturation and migration. To get insight in the mechanism of this requirement, our studies examined the effect of taurine deficiency in stem/progenitor cells (collectively named neural precursor cells, NPCs). NPCs obtained from mesencephalon of mice embryos (E13.5 days), the subventricular zone of adult mice or human fetal brain, were cultured in media containing EGF and bFGF, and grown as neurospheres. NPCs become taurine-deficient after few days in culture. Addition of taurine replenished the cell pool by a taurine transporter, functionally expressed in NPCs. Taurine-containing cultures contain higher number of cells, due to increased proliferation, evaluated by BrdU incorporation and flow cytometry DNA analysis. Taurine effects are not immediate, requiring a long time interaction with cells. Taurine is not present in cell nuclei, discarding a direct action on nuclear elements. Taurine containing cultures show a higher number of cells with more efficient mitochondrial potential, as detected by flow cytometry assays using rhodamine123/NAO and JC1. A microarray analysis revealed that taurine regulates NPC genes implicated in proliferation, survival, adhesion and mitochondrial functioning. NPCs cultured in medium with bovine fetal serum differentiate into astrocytes, neurons and oligodendrocytes. A markedly high number of neurons were found in taurine cultures from NPCs from adult murine brain (229 %) and human fetal brain (307 %). This effect may also be a consequence of a better mitochondrial functioning as neuronal survival in cultures is markedly affected by the energy state of the cell during the differentiation phase.

Keywords

  • Neurogenesis
  • Neural precursor cells
  • Stem cell proliferation
  • Neurosphere cultures
  • DNA microarray
  • Mitochondrial function

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Abbreviations

BrdU:

Bromodeoxyuridine

bFGF:

Basic fibroblast growth factor

CFSE:

Carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester

DAVID:

Database for annotation, visualization and integrated discovery

EGF:

Epidermal growth factor

GFAP:

Glial fibrillary acidic protein

JC1:

5,5′,6,6′-Tetrachloro-1,1′,3,3′-tetraethylbenzimi-dazolylcarbocyanine iodide

KEGG:

Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes

LeX:

Lewis X

MAP2:

Microtubule-associated protein 2

MBP:

Myelin basic protein

mtRNA:

Mitochondrial transfer Ribonucleic acid

MTT:

3-(4,5-Dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide

NAO:

10-N-nonyl acridine orange

NPCs:

Neural precursor cells

Pax6:

Paired box protein 6

Shh:

Sonic Hedgehog

SVZ:

Subventricular zone

TAUT:

Taurine transporter

UBP:

Ubiquitin/proteosome

Wnt:

Wingles-Integrase1

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the grant PAPIIT-IN202313 from the Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico (DGAPA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. División de Neurociencias, Instituto de Fisiología Celular, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

    Herminia Pasantes-Morales, Gerardo Ramos-Mandujano & Reyna Hernández-Benítez

Authors
  1. Herminia Pasantes-Morales
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  2. Gerardo Ramos-Mandujano
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  3. Reyna Hernández-Benítez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Herminia Pasantes-Morales .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Immunology, Medical College Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

    Janusz Marcinkiewicz

  2. Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, USA

    Stephen W. Schaffer

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Pasantes-Morales, H., Ramos-Mandujano, G., Hernández-Benítez, R. (2015). Taurine Enhances Proliferation and Promotes Neuronal Specification of Murine and Human Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells. In: Marcinkiewicz, J., Schaffer, S. (eds) Taurine 9. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 803. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15126-7_36

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