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Neural Stem Cells: Functional Multipotency and Spinal Cord Injury Research Protocols

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Working with Stem Cells

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Abstract

Human neural stem cells (hNSCs) have been the focus in basic science and translational research as well as in investigative clinical applications. The endeavors partly aim to devise hNSCs into stem cell-based therapeutic modalities, disease models, and investigative tools for treating neurological abnormalities, understanding pathophysiology, and advancing fundamental neurobiology, respectively. Therefore, the capability to perform reliable derivation, effective expansion, and long term maintenance of primordial and uncommitted NSCs in vitro is essential for growing the capacities of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. In this chapter, we systematically describe a set of protocols and unique procedures that have been developed in the principal investigator’s laboratories. These regimens have been, over years, productively used to derive, propagate, maintain, and differentiate operationally defined human somatic NSCs or NSCs of different origins. Moreover, we summarize our established multimodal methodologies for characterizing the functional multipotency of NSCs and their value in basic as well as translational studies.

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Acknowledgments

The work at Teng Laboratories has been supported by Project ALS, NIH, VA, DoD, BSF, the Gordon Project to Treat and Cure Clinical Paralysis, and CASIS-NASA. We thank Dr. E. Snyder, Dr. R. Sidman, and Dr. R. Langer for their mentorship and support to our research work. Author contributions: YDT wrote and finalized the manuscript. XZ, IH and JEA actively participated in stem cell culture, cryoprotection, implantation preparation, and protocol updates in working with Dr. Teng. The authors hold no COI for this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Yang D. Teng, Xiang Zeng, Inbo Han & Jaime E. Anderson

  2. Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Yang D. Teng

  3. Division of SCI Research, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, USA

    Yang D. Teng, Xiang Zeng, Inbo Han & Jaime E. Anderson

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, Cha University, Seoul, South Korea

    Inbo Han

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  1. Yang D. Teng
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  2. Xiang Zeng
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Correspondence to Yang D. Teng .

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Teng, Y.D., Zeng, X., Han, I., Anderson, J.E. (2016). Neural Stem Cells: Functional Multipotency and Spinal Cord Injury Research Protocols. In: Working with Stem Cells. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30582-0_18

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