Prolonged cultivation of hippocampal neural precursor cells shifts their differentiation potential and selects for aneuploid cells.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Neural precursor cells (NPCs) are lineage-restricted neural stem cells with limited self-renewal, giving rise to a broad range of neural cell types such as neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Despite this developmental potential, the differentiation capacity of NPCs has been controversially discussed concerning the trespassing lineage boundaries, for instance resulting in hematopoietic competence. Assessing their in vitro plasticity, we isolated nestin+/Sox2+, NPCs from the adult murine hippocampus. In vitro-expanded adult NPCs were able to form neurospheres, self-renew, and differentiate into neuronal, astrocytic, and oligodendrocytic cells. Although NPCs cultivated in early passage efficiently gave rise to neuronal cells in a directed differentiation assay, extensively cultivated NPCs revealed reduced potential for ectodermal differentiation. We further observed successful differentiation of long-term cultured NPCs into osteogenic and adipogenic cell types, suggesting that NPCs underwent a fate switch during culture. NPCs cultivated for more than 12 passages were aneuploid (abnormal chromosome numbers such as 70 chromosomes). Furthermore, they showed growth factor-independent proliferation, a hallmark of tumorigenic transformation. In conclusion, our findings substantiate the lineage restriction of NPCs from adult mammalian hippocampus. Prolonged cultivation results, h

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

Browse all related research

Filter the research library by this study's title keywords, author, or publication year.