STEMdiff Neural Induction Medium: Directed Differentiation of hPSCs to Neural Progenitor Cells

Neural progenitor cells (NPCs) are characterized by their capacity to both self-renew and generate the differentiated major tissue types of the central nervous system (CNS): neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, with the latter two cell types often referred to as glia. NPCs can be isolated from the embryonic or adult mammalian brain; however in vitro propagation of primary human NPCs can be challenging due to availability in cell source and slow doubling time. In order to circumvent the challenges associated with primary human NPCs propagation, research has focused on deriving NPCs from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), including human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Central goals of NPC research have been: 1) to optimize hPSC-derived NPC generation, 2) maintenance and expansion of NPCs, and 3) controlled differentiation of human NPCs to specifi c subtypes of functional end cells. hPSC-derived NPCs provide an essential tool to study NPC biology and lineage differentiation propensity, and much progress has been made in the past decade to discover factors regulating NPC self-renewal and their differentiation into specifi c subtypes of neurons and glia.