Human Pluripotent Stem Cells as In Vitro Models of Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Human Pluripotent Stem Cells as In Vitro Models of Neurodegenerative Diseases. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2020;1195:93-94 Authors: Machairaki V Abstract My main research focused in the last years has been the reprogramming of differentiated cell types, such as human fibroblasts, into pluripotent stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and the application of this technology to studies of the nervous system and the diseases that affect it. We have been working on the generation of iPSC lines from Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients using recent developments in reprogramming strategies such as non-integrating episomal vectors to produce virus-free, clinical safe hiPSC. Our study shows that neurons differentiated from these cells display important disease properties and, thus, have the potential to serve as cellular models to explore various aspects of Alzheimer's pathogenesis. One of the lab's scientific goal is to use lines of familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD)-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to generate brain-like structures ("organoids") mimicking native brains. Three-dimensional (3D) systems, called cerebral organoids, can recapitulate distinct architectures of the human brain, such as fluid-filled cavities resembling brain ventricles and tissues organized in layers including progenitor ventricular and subventricular zones present in the native brain. Recently, we have extended our research interests in the rapi...
Source: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - Category: Research Tags: Adv Exp Med Biol Source Type: research