Asymptomatic neurotoxicity of amyloid ß-peptides (Aß1-42 and Aß25-35) on mouse embryonic stem cell-derived neural cells.

ABSTRACT

One of the strategies in the establishment of in vitro oxidative stress models for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), is to induce neurotoxicity by amyloid beta (Aß) peptides in suitable neural cells. Presently, data on the neurotoxicity of Aß in neural cells differentiated from stem cells are limited. In this study, we attempted to induce oxidative stress in transgenic 46C mouse embryonic stem cell-derived neurons via treatment with Aß peptides (Aß1-42 and Aß25-35). 46C neural cells were generated by promoting the formation of multicellular aggregates, embryoid bodies in the absence of leukemia inhibitory factor, followed by the addition of all-trans retinoic acid as the neural inducer. Mature neuronal cells were exposed to different concentrations of Aß1-42 and Aß25-35 for 24 h. Morphological changes, cell viability, and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production were assessed. We found that 100 µM Aß1-42 and 50 µM Aß25-35 only promoted 40% and 10%, respectively, of cell injury and death in the 46C-derived neuronal cells. Interestingly, treatment with each of the Aß peptides resulted in a significant increase of intracellular ROS activity, as compared to untreated neurons. These findings indicate the potential of using neurons derived from stem cells and Aß peptides in generating oxidative stress for the establishment of an in vitro AD model that could be useful for drug screening and natural product studies.