Production of neural stem cells from human pluripotent stem cells

Despite significant advances in commercially available media and kits and the differentiation approaches for human neural stem cell (NSC) generation, NSC production from the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) is complicated by its time-consuming procedure, complex medium composition, and purification step. In this study, we developed a convenient and simplified NSC production protocol to meet the demand of NSC production. We demonstrated that NSCs can be generated efficiently without requirement of specific small molecules or embryoid body formation stage. Our experimental results suggest that a short suspension culture period may facilitate ectoderm lineage specification rather than endoderm or mesoderm lineage specification from hPSCs. The method developed in this study shortens the turnaround time of NSC production from both human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) differentiation. It provides a straightforward and useful strategy for generating NSCs that can benefit a wide range of research applications for human brain research. (C)2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.