Abstract
Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and their neural derivatives hold great potential for developing therapies for treating disorders and injuries of the nervous system. It is therefore imperative that the methods used for differentiating hESC to neurons and glia be robust and well characterized. This chapter describes the efficient generation of neural progenitors from hESC using the BMP inhibitor protein, Noggin, their expansion as neurospheres, and subsequent differentiation into neurons and glia. This protocol has been used as an in vitro model for understanding neural differentiation of hESC as well as for deriving neural progenitors for treating neurodegenerative disorders. Since the overall method can be divided into defined stages of neural differentiation, it allows flexibility for introducing modifications to generate specific cell lineages. This feature of the protocol, together with its efficiency of generating neural progenitors, makes it attractive for other researchers to use for their own studies.
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© 2009 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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Dottori, M., Pébay, A., Pera, M.F. (2009). Neural Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells. In: Doering, L. (eds) Protocols for Neural Cell Culture. Springer Protocols Handbooks. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-292-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-292-6_4
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