Frontiers in Neuroscience (Jun 2020)

A Guide to Extract Spinal Cord for Translational Stem Cell Biology Research: Comparative Analysis of Adult Human, Porcine, and Rodent Spinal Cord Stem Cells

  • Ahmad Galuta,
  • Ahmad Galuta,
  • Ryan Sandarage,
  • Ryan Sandarage,
  • Diana Ghinda,
  • Diana Ghinda,
  • Angela M. Auriat,
  • Suzan Chen,
  • Jason C. S. Kwan,
  • Jason C. S. Kwan,
  • Eve C. Tsai,
  • Eve C. Tsai,
  • Eve C. Tsai

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00607
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

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Improving the clinical translation of animal-based neural stem/progenitor cell (NSPC) therapies to humans requires an understanding of intrinsic human and animal cell characteristics. We report a novel in vitro method to assess spinal cord NSPCs from a small (rodent) and large (porcine) animal model in comparison to human NSPCs. To extract live adult human, porcine, and rodent spinal cord tissue, we illustrate a strategy using an anterior or posterior approach that was simulated in a porcine model. The initial expansion of primary NSPCs is carried out using the neurosphere assay followed by a pharmacological treatment phase during which NSPCs derived from humans, porcines, and rodents are assessed in parallel using the same defined parameters. Using this model, NSPCs from all species demonstrated multi-lineage differentiation and self-renewal. Importantly, these methods provide conditions to enable the direct comparison of species-dependent cell behavior in response to specific exogenous signals.

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