No noticeable changes in culture density or cellular morphology were observed during short-term exposure to CHIR or XAV

No noticeable changes in culture density or cellular morphology were observed during short-term exposure to CHIR or XAV. We also measured whether 48 h of hNPCs exposure to CHIR or XAV was sufficient to induce ZSTK474 changes in gene expression reflecting a change in their neurodevelopmental status. neural differentiation, while also reducing cell proliferation and survival. This effect was not synergistic with those of pro-neural growth factors during long-term neuronal differentiation. Conversely, antagonism of Wnt by XAV939 consistently prevented neuronal progression of hNPCs. We show here how these two drugs can be used to manipulate cell fate and how self-renewing hNPCs can be used as reliable human drug-screening platforms. drug screening platforms based on stem cells and their derivatives, emphasizing their dynamism and malleability. Materials and Methods Human Embryonic Stem Cells Four non-affected hESC lines were obtained from Harvard University Stem Cell Core, including HUES-6 Rabbit Polyclonal to GTF3A (XX), HUES-16, HUES-13, and HUES-64 ZSTK474 (XY) (Cowan et al., 2004; Osafune et al., 2008; Bock et al., 2011; Telias ZSTK474 et al., 2015b). Undifferentiated hESC colonies were cultured on Matrigel (BD)-coated polystyrene wells, in the presence of inactivated mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), in liquid medium composed of DMEM:F12, supplemented with ZSTK474 20% knock-out serum replacement, 1% Glutamax, 1% insulin transferrin selenium (all purchased from ZSTK474 LifeTech.), 1% non-essential amino-acids (BioInd.), and 50 ng/ml Primocin (InvivoGen) (Telias et al., 2013, 2014, 2015b). Cell medium was refreshed every 48 h and supplemented with 8 ng/ml basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF, R&D) to maintain pluripotency and prevent spontaneous differentiation neural differentiation (IVND) of hESCs was carried out as previously described (Telias et al., 2013, 2015b). In brief, hESCs were grown in Neural Induction Medium (NIM) consisting of DMEM:F12, 0.5% B27 supplement, 1% N2 supplement, 1% Glutamax, 1% non-essential amino acids and 0.1 mg/ml Primocin. IVND included three steps: (a) formation of neuro-ectoderm in the presence of 250 ng/ml noggin (PeproTech) and 20 ng/ml bFGF; (b) development of neural rosettes in the presence of 200 ng/ml sonic hedgehog (Shh, PeproTech) and (c) generation of neurospheres aggregates by manual trituration, re-suspended in NIM containing 20 ng/ml bFGF. To induce the formation of self-renewable hNPCs, floating neurospheres were re-seeded on Matrigel-coated polystyrene in NIM with 20 ng/ml bFGF. Self-renewing hNPCs were grown for a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 12 passages before initiating any experiment. Cultures were passaged once a week at a dilution ratio of 1:6. For passaging, cells were dissociated using TryplE (LifeTech) at 37C for 2C3 min. Cells were gently pipetted, collected and centrifuged in a conical 15-ml tube (5, 1,200 RPM) before re-seeding. Neuronal differentiation of hNPCs was induced by cells dissociation using TryplE and re-plating onto Poly-D-Lysine/Laminin (Sigma)-coated glass coverslips. NIM was replaced with Neuronal Differentiation Medium (NDM) supplemented with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glia-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3, all 10 ng/ml, PeproTech). NDM composition was similar to NIM, but using Neurobasal (LifeTech) instead of DMEM:F12. Pharmacological Manipulation of Wnt Signaling The GSK-3 inhibitor CHIR99021 {6-[[2-[[4-(2,4-Dichlorophenyl)-5-(5-methyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-2-pyrimidinyl] amino]ethyl]amino]-3-pyridinecarbonitrile; a.k.a. CHIR} was purchased from Tocris (Cat #4423). The TANK inhibitor XAV939 {2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,5,7,8-tetrahydrothiopyrano[4,3-d]pyrimidin-4-one; a.k.a. XAV} was obtained from Selleckchem (Cat #A1877). Both compounds were dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) at 20 mM stock solutions and stored at ?80C, in the dark. Fresh CHIR or XAV was added with every medium change, every 48C72 h. Working concentrations of both pharmacological agents was 3 M in all experiments (De Kumar et al., 2017; Major et al., 2017; Shafa et al., 2018; Srikanth et al., 2018), resulting in a DMSO content of 0.015%. Accordingly, all control experiments, without CHIR or XAV, included 0.015% DMSO. Gene Expression Analysis Relative transcription levels were analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR, as previously described (Telias et al., 2013, 2015b). RNA was extracted (RNeasy, Qiagen), reversed transcribed using Super Script-III kit (Invitrogen), and analyzed using SYBRgreen (ABgene) in Rotor Gene 6000 Series (Corbett). The house keeping gene GAPDH was used as a control for Ct analysis. All qRT-PCR assays included non-template control and non-human cells control (MEFs). Primer sequences (5C3) were as follows: GAPDH, R-atacgaccaaatccgttgactc, F-agccacatcgctcagacacc; MAP2, R-cattggcgcttcggacaag, F-ctcag caccgctaacagagg; GFAP, R-aggtccatgtggagcttgac, F-gccattgcc tcatactgcgt; TUJ1, R-tttttgctcgcctcaaggtatgt, F-gggcgcattccaacctt; TAU, R-tgccatgttgagcaggacta, and F-tcacttttacagcaacagtcagtg. All qRT-PCR experiments included a non-human negative control (RNA extracted from MEFs) and a no-template control (no DNA template in the reaction). Western Blot.