Human embryonic stem cells differentiated in dopaminergic neurons

Human embryonic stem cells have been a great interest due to its potential to provide a renewable source of surrogate dopamine neurons for transplantation into Parkinson’s disease patients. We have differentiated hESCs with a monolayer of PA6 cells under 2D and 3D systems for 28 days. Genome-wide microarray analysis showed that our 3D samples increased expression of genes that are involved in neuronal developments such as Wnt, hedgehog and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling pathways. The results suggest that the 3D differentiation system may have affected the regulatory or signalling mechanisms which enhanced the rate of differentiation towards ectoderm. 3 biological replicates for 2D samples and 2 biological replicates for 3D samples.