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Roy N. Alcalay, M.D.
"Why do some people who carry genetic mutations associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) never develop PD while others do?" asks Roy N. Alcalay, M.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Parkinson’s Disease and Other Movement Disorders...
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Isolation of Neural Crest Derived Chromaffin Progenitors from Adult Adrenal Medulla.
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Stem Cells 2009 Jul;
Authors: Kuei-Fang Chung, Flavie Sicard, Vladimir Vukicevic, Andreas Hermann, Alexander Storch, Wieland B Huttner, Stefan R Bornstein, Monika Ehrhart-Bornstein
Carl Gustav Carus University Medical School, Medical Clinic III, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany.
Chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla are neural crest-derived cells of the sympathoadrenal lineage. Unlike the closely-related sympathetic neurons, a subpopulation of proliferation-competent cells exists even in the adult. Here, we describe the isolation, expansion, and in vitro characterization of proliferation-competent progenitor cells from the bovine adrenal medulla. Similar to neurospheres, these cells, when prevented from adherence to the culture dish, grew in spheres, which we named chromospheres. These chromospheres were devoid of genes specific for smooth muscle cells (MYH11) or endothelial cells (PECAM1). During sphere formation, markers for differentiated chromaffin cells, such as phenyletanolamine-N-methyl transferase, were down-regulated while neural progenitor markers nestin, vimentin, musashi 1 and nerve growth factor receptor, as well as markers of neural crest progenitor cells such as Sox1 and Sox9 were up-regulated. Clonal analysis and BrdU-incorporation analysis demonstrated the self-renewing capacity of chromosphere cells. Differentiation protocols using NGF and BMP4, or dexamethasone induced neuronal or endocrine differentiation, respectively. Electrophysiological analyses of neural cells derived from chromospheres revealed functional properties of mature nerve cells, such as tetrodotoxin-sensitive sodium channels and action potentials. Our study provides evidence that proliferation and differentiation competent chromaffin progenitor cells can be isolated from adult adrenal medulla that might harbour the potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, e.g. Parkinson's disease.
PMID: 19609938 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
