Restricted Spontaneous In Vitro Differentiation and Region-Specific Migration of Long-Term Expanded Fetal Human Neural Precursor Cells After Transplantation Into the Adult Rat Brain

Human fetal neural stem/progenitor cells (hNSCs) are investigated for their potential as a cell source for cell-based therapies in neurodegenerative diseases. However, the limited availability of fetal tissue and insufficient understanding of the lineage-dependent pattern of survival, migration, and differentiation following engraftment are still unresolved issues. In the current study hNSCs derived from different brain regions were long-term expanded in vitro to yield proliferating neurospheres giving rise to neurons, astro-, and oligodendroglial cells and assessed for their potential for migration, differentiation, and anatomical integration following intracerebral grafting into rats. hNSCs isolated from neocortex, striatum, midbrain, and spinal cord (SC) proliferated following in vitro differentiation, and showed a significant decrease of newly formed neurons along the rostrocaudal axis of the developing central nervous system (CNS). Most of the mature neurons were positive for the neurotransmitter GABA. In vivo all cell types survived up to 9 weeks posttransplantation. Intrastriatally grafted hNSCs migrated extensively along white matter tracts reaching both rostral (forceps minor) and caudal (midbrain, cerebral peduncle) brain regions. The majority of migratory cells expressed the stem cell marker, nestin. A fraction of grafted cells acquired a neuronal phenotype expressing doublecortin, beta-III-tubulin, or GABA. These data demonstrate efficient in vitro propagation, region-specific long-term survival, long-distance migration, and neuronal differentiation of hNSCs after transplantation into the adult rat brain. The availability of a large pool of in vitro expanded nestin-positive cells offers the possibility for further ex vivo manipulations and the recruitment of different neuronal phenotypes for cell replacement strategies for CNS disorders.