Age-linked suppression of lipoxin A4 associates with cognitive deficits in mice and humans.

Age increases the risk for cognitive impairment and is the single major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most prevalent form of dementia in the elderly. The pathophysiological processes triggered by aging that render the brain vulnerable to dementia involve, at least in part, changes in inflammatory mediators. Here we show that lipoxin A4 (LXA4), a lipid mediator of inflammation resolution known to stimulate endocannabinoid signaling in the brain, is reduced in the aging central nervous system. We demonstrate that genetic suppression of 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX), the enzyme mediating LXA4 synthesis, promotes learning impairment in mice. Conversely, administration of exogenous LXA4 attenuated cytokine production and memory loss induced by inflammation in mice. We further show that cerebrospinal fluid LXA4 is reduced in patients with dementia and positively associated with cognitive performance, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and AD-linked amyloid-ß. Our findings suggest that reduced LXA4 levels may lead to vulnerability to age-related cognitive disorders and that promoting LXA4 signaling may comprise an effective strategy to prevent early cognitive decline in AD.

Generation of iPSC-Derived Human Peripheral Sensory Neurons Releasing Substance P Elicited by TRPV1 Agonists.

Neural crest stem cells (NCPCs) have been shown to differentiate into various cell types and tissues during embryonic development, including sensory neurons. The few studies addressing the generation of NCPCs and peripheral sensory neurons (PSNs) from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), generated sensory cells without displaying robust activity. Here, we describe an efficient strategy for hiPSCs differentiation into NCPCs and functional PSNs using chemically defined media and factors to achieve efficient differentiation, confirmed by the expression of specific markers. After 10 days hiPSCs differentiated into NCPCs, cells were then maintained in neural induction medium containing defined growth factors for PSNs differentiation, followed by 10 days in neonatal human epidermal keratinocytes- (HEKn-) conditioned medium (CM). We observed a further increase in PSN markers expression and neurites length after CM treatment. The resulting neurons elicited action potentials after current injection and released substance P (SP) in response to nociceptive agents such as anandamide and resiniferatoxin. Anandamide induced substance P release via activation of TRPV1 and not CB1. Transcriptomic analysis of the PSNs revealed the main dorsal root ganglia neuronal markers and a transcriptional profile compatible with C fiber-low threshold mechanoreceptors. TRPV1 was detected by immunofluorescence and RNA-Seq in multiple experiments. In conclusion, the developed strategy generated PSNs useful for drug screening that could be applied to patient-derived hiPSCs, consisting in a powerful tool to model human diseases in vitro.

Co-expression network of neural-differentiation genes shows specific pattern in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder with genetic and environmental factors contributing to its pathogenesis, although the mechanism is unknown due to the difficulties in accessing diseased tissue during human neurodevelopment. The aim of this study was to find neuronal differentiation genes disrupted in schizophrenia and to evaluate those genes in post-mortem brain tissues from schizophrenia cases and controls. METHODS: We analyzed differentially expressed genes (DEG), copy number variation (CNV) and differential methylation in human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) derived from fibroblasts from one control and one schizophrenia patient and further differentiated into neuron (NPC). Expression of the DEG were analyzed with microarrays of post-mortem brain tissue (frontal cortex) cohort of 29 schizophrenia cases and 30 controls. A Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) using the DEG was used to detect clusters of co-expressed genes that were non-conserved between adult cases and controls brain samples. RESULTS: We identified methylation alterations potentially involved with neuronal differentiation in schizophrenia, which displayed an over-representation of genes related to chromatin remodeling complex (adjP = 0.04). We found 228 DEG associated with neuronal differentiation. These genes were involved with metabolic processes, signal transduction, nervous system development, regulation of neurogenesis and neuronal differentiation. Between adult brain samples from cases and controls there were 233 DEG, with only four genes overlapping with the 228 DEG, probably because we compared single cell to tissue bulks and more importantly, the cells were at different stages of development. The comparison of the co-expressed network of the 228 genes in adult brain samples between cases and controls revealed a less conserved module enriched for genes associated with oxidative stress and negative regulation of cell differentiation. CONCLUSION: This study supports the relevance of using cellular approaches to dissect molecular aspects of neurogenesis with impact in the schizophrenic brain. We showed that, although generated by different approaches, both sets of DEG associated to schizophrenia were involved with neocortical development. The results add to the hypothesis that critical metabolic changes may be occurring during early neurodevelopment influencing faulty development of the brain and potentially contributing to further vulnerability to the illness.

Accelerating neuronal aging in in vitro model brain disorders: a focus on reactive oxygen species.

In this review, we discuss insights gained through the use of stem cell preparations regarding the modeling of neurological diseases, the need for aging neurons derived from pluripotent stem cells to further advance the study of late-onset adult neurological diseases, and the extent to which mechanisms linked to the mismanagement of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The context of these issues can be revealed using the three disease states of Parkinson's (PD), Alzheimer's (AD), and schizophrenia, as considerable insights have been gained into these conditions through the use of stem cells in terms of disease etiologies and the role of oxidative stress. The latter subject is a primary area of interest of our group. After discussing the molecular models of accelerated aging, we highlight the role of ROS for the three diseases explored here. Importantly, we do not seek to provide an extensive account of all genetic mutations for each of the three disorders discussed in this review, but we aim instead to provide a conceptual framework that could maximize the gains from merging the approaches of stem cell microsystems and the study of oxidative stress in disease in order to optimize therapeutics and determine new molecular targets against oxidative stress that spare stem cell proliferation and development.

Xeno-free production of human embryonic stem cells in stirred microcarrier systems using a novel animal/human-component-free medium.

Currently, stem cell research faces a major bottleneck related to the low efficiency of methods to produce large quantities of human embryonic stem cells (ESC) for use in clinical trials. Most culture media currently employed for human ESC cultivation contain animal compounds, and cells are grown in static flasks. Besides the immediate contamination with nonhuman compounds, cell expansion in flasks tends to be laborious and nonefficient. Here we cultured human ESC in stirred microcarrier (MC) systems using an animal/human-component-free medium, to overcome both issues. The method developed to culture cells on suspended beads combined the use of polymeric MCs in stirred vessels with an optimized culture medium free of supplements of animal and human origin. This approach generated approximately 160 million cells within 6 days, which were shown to remain pluripotent. The process developed herein provides a step forward toward therapy due to the economic advantages in the production of human ESC and to their consequent low immunogenic potential.

Pluripotent stem cells as a model to study oxygen metabolism in neurogenesis and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxygen (O2) have been implicated in neurogenesis and self-renewal of neural progenitor cells (NPCs). On the other hand, oxidative unbalance, either by an impairment of antioxidant defenses or by an intensified production of ROS, is increasingly related to risk factors of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as schizophrenia. In this scenario, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) emerged as an interesting platform for the study of cellular and molecular aspects of this mental disorder, by complementing other experimental models, with exclusive advantages such as the recapitulation of brain development. Herein we discuss the role of O2/ROS signaling for neuronal differentiation and how its unbalance could be related to neurodevelopmental disorders, such as schizophrenia. Identifying the role of O2/ROS in neurogenesis as well as tackling oxidative stress and its disturbances in schizophrenic patients' derived cells will provide an interesting opportunity for the study of neural stem cells differentiation and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Implications of aneuploidy for stem cell biology and brain therapeutics.

Understanding the cellular basis of neurological disorders have advanced at a slow pace, especially due to the extreme invasiveness of brain biopsying and limitations of cell lines and animal models that have been used. Since the derivation of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), a novel source of cells for regenerative medicine and disease modeling has become available, holding great potential for the neurology field. However, safety for therapy and accurateness for modeling have been a matter of intense debate, considering that genomic instability, including the gain and loss of chromosomes (aneuploidy), has been repeatedly observed in those cells. Despite the fact that recent reports have described some degree of aneuploidy as being normal during neuronal differentiation and present in healthy human brains, this phenomenon is particularly controversial since it has traditionally been associated with cancer and disabling syndromes. It is therefore necessary to appreciate, to which extent, aneuploid pluripotent stem cells are suitable for regenerative medicine and neurological modeling and also the limits that separate constitutive from disease-related aneuploidy. In this review, recent findings regarding chromosomal instability in PSCs and within the brain will be discussed.

Altered oxygen metabolism associated to neurogenesis of induced pluripotent stem cells derived from a schizophrenic patient.

Schizophrenia has been defined as a neurodevelopmental disease that causes changes in the process of thoughts, perceptions, and emotions, usually leading to a mental deterioration and affective blunting. Studies have shown altered cell respiration and oxidative stress response in schizophrenia; however, most of the knowledge has been acquired from postmortem brain analyses or from nonneural cells. Here we describe that neural cells, derived from induced pluripotent stem cells generated from skin fibroblasts of a schizophrenic patient, presented a twofold increase in extramitochondrial oxygen consumption as well as elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), when compared to controls. This difference in ROS levels was reverted by the mood stabilizer valproic acid. Our model shows evidence that metabolic changes occurring during neurogenesis are associated with schizophrenia, contributing to a better understanding of the development of the disease and highlighting potential targets for treatment and drug screening.

Synchrotron radiation X-ray microfluorescence reveals polarized distribution of atomic elements during differentiation of pluripotent stem cells.

The mechanisms underlying pluripotency and differentiation in embryonic and reprogrammed stem cells are unclear. In this work, we characterized the pluripotent state towards neural differentiated state through analysis of trace elements distribution using the Synchrotron Radiation X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy. Naive and neural-stimulated embryoid bodies (EB) derived from embryonic and induced pluripotent stem (ES and iPS) cells were irradiated with a spatial resolution of 20 µm to make elemental maps and qualitative chemical analyses. Results show that these embryo-like aggregates exhibit self-organization at the atomic level. Metallic elements content rises and consistent elemental polarization pattern of P and S in both mouse and human pluripotent stem cells were observed, indicating that neural differentiation and elemental polarization are strongly correlated.

Retinoic acid-treated pluripotent stem cells undergoing neurogenesis present increased aneuploidy and micronuclei formation.

The existence of loss and gain of chromosomes, known as aneuploidy, has been previously described within the central nervous system. During development, at least one-third of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) are aneuploid. Notably, aneuploid NPCs may survive and functionally integrate into the mature neural circuitry. Given the unanswered significance of this phenomenon, we tested the hypothesis that neural differentiation induced by all-trans retinoic acid (RA) in pluripotent stem cells is accompanied by increased levels of aneuploidy, as previously described for cortical NPCs in vivo. In this work we used embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells, embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells undergoing differentiation into NPCs. Ploidy analysis revealed a 2-fold increase in the rate of aneuploidy, with the prevalence of chromosome loss in RA primed stem cells when compared to naïve cells. In an attempt to understand the basis of neurogenic aneuploidy, micronuclei formation and survivin expression was assessed in pluripotent stem cells exposed to RA. RA increased micronuclei occurrence by almost 2-fold while decreased survivin expression by 50%, indicating possible mechanisms by which stem cells lose their chromosomes during neural differentiation. DNA fragmentation analysis demonstrated no increase in apoptosis on embryoid bodies treated with RA, indicating that cell death is not the mandatory fate of aneuploid NPCs derived from pluripotent cells. In order to exclude that the increase in aneuploidy was a spurious consequence of RA treatment, not related to neurogenesis, mouse embryonic fibroblasts were treated with RA under the same conditions and no alterations in chromosome gain or loss were observed. These findings indicate a correlation amongst neural differentiation, aneuploidy, micronuclei formation and survivin downregulation in pluripotent stem cells exposed to RA, providing evidence that somatically generated chromosomal variation accompanies neurogenesis in vitro.

Agathisflavone enhances retinoic acid-induced neurogenesis and its receptors α and ß in pluripotent stem cells.

Flavonoids have key functions in the regulation of multiple cellular processes; however, their effects have been poorly examined in pluripotent stem cells. Here, we tested the hypothesis that neurogenesis induced by all-trans retinoic acid (RA) is enhanced by agathisflavone (FAB, Caesalpinia pyramidalis Tull). Mouse embryonic stem (mES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (miPS) cells growing as embryoid bodies (EBs) for 4 days were treated with FAB (60 µM) and/or RA (2 µM) for additional 4 days. FAB did not interfere with the EB mitotic rate of mES cells, as evidenced by similar percentages of mitotic figures labeled by phospho-histone H3 in control (3.4% ± 0.4%) and FAB-treated groups (3.5% ± 1.1%). Nevertheless, the biflavonoid reduced cell death in both control and RA-treated EBs from mES cells by almost 2-fold compared with untreated EBs. FAB was unable, by itself, to induce neuronal differentiation in EBs after 4 days of treatment. On the other hand, FAB enhanced neuronal differentiation induced by RA in both EBs of mES and miPS. FAB increased the percentage of nestin-labeled cells by 2.7-fold (mES) and 2.4 (miPS) and ß-tubulin III-positive cells by 2-fold (mES) and 2.7 (miPS) in comparison to RA-treated EBs only. FAB increased the expression of RA receptors α and ß in mES EBs, suggesting that the availability of RA receptors is limiting RA-induced neurogenesis in pluripotent stem cells. This is the first report to describe that naturally occurring biflavonoids regulate apoptosis and neuronal differentiation in pluripotent stem cells.

Cannabinoids modulate cell survival in embryoid bodies.

ESCs (embryonic stem cells) are potentially able to replace damaged cells in animal models of neural pathologies such as Parkinson's disease, stroke and spinal cord lesions. Nevertheless, many issues remain unsolved regarding optimal culturing procedures for these cells. For instance, on their path to differentiation in vitro, which usually involves the formation of EBs (embryoid bodies), they may present chromosomal instability, loss of pluripotency or simply die. Therefore, finding strategies to increase the survival of cells within EBs is of great interest. Cannabinoid receptors have many roles in the physiology of the adult body, but little is known about their role in the biology of ESCs. Herein, we investigated how two cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2, may affect the outcome of ESCs aggregated as EBs. RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase-PCR) revealed that EBs expressed both CB1 and CB2 receptors. Aggregation of ESCs into EBs followed by 2-day incubation with a CB1/CB2 agonist reduced cell death by approximately 45%, which was reversed by a CB1 antagonist. A specific CB2 agonist also reduced cell death by approximately 20%. These data indicate that both cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2, are involved in reducing cell death in EBs mediated by exogenous cannabinoids. No increase in proliferation, neural differentiation or changes in chromosomal stability was observed. This study indicates that cannabinoid signalling is functionally implicated in the biology of differentiating ESCs, being the first to show that activation of cannabinoid receptors is able to increase cell viability via reduction of cell death rate in EBs.