Defining the nature of human pluripotent stem cell-derived interneurons via single cell analysis

We applied single nuclei and single cell transcriptomics methods to model interneuron development with interneurons derived from human PSCs. We find that PSC-derived interneurons capture stages of development prior to mid gestation, but only represent a minority of potential subtypes that are found in the brain. Comparison of these interneurons to those found in the adult brain highlighted decreased expression of synapse-related genes, reflective of their electrophysiological immaturity. Together, these analyses provide a full characterization of PSC-derived interneurons. hESCs cultures underwent directed differentiation into interneurons, and were then isolated for single cell RNA-seq.