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Self‐organization of neural tissue architectures from pluripotent stem cells
Author(s) -
Karus Michael,
Blaess Sandra,
Brüstle Oliver
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of comparative neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1096-9861
pISSN - 0021-9967
DOI - 10.1002/cne.23608
Subject(s) - biology , neuroepithelial cell , neuroscience , induced pluripotent stem cell , neural stem cell , neural development , nervous system , central nervous system , stem cell , embryonic stem cell , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , gene
Despite being a subject of intensive research, the mechanisms underlying the formation of neural tissue architectures during development of the central nervous system remain largely enigmatic. So far, studies into neural pattern formation have been restricted mainly to animal experiments. With the advent of pluripotent stem cells it has become possible to explore early steps of nervous system development in vitro. These studies have unraveled a remarkable propensity of primitive neural cells to self‐organize into primitive patterns such as neural tube‐like rosettes in vitro. Data from more advanced 3D culture systems indicate that this intrinsic propensity for self‐organization can even extend to the formation of complex architectures such as a multilayered cortical neuroepithelium or an entire optic cup. These novel experimental paradigms not only demonstrate the enormous self‐organization capacity of neural stem cells, they also provide exciting prospects for studying the earliest steps of human neural tissue development and the pathogenesis of brain malformations in reductionist in vitro paradigms. J. Comp. Neurol. 522:2831–2844, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.