Proteomic characterization of human neural stem cells during in vitro differentiation

One of the promising approaches to slow down or treat neurodegenerative diseases or spinal cord injuries represent cell therapies. The grafted cells could either integrate into the damaged tissue to replace dead or damaged cells or by secretion of different factors modulate inflammatory reaction, reduce tissue damage and support neuronal survival. However, due to the heterogeneity of in vitro cultured cells, comprehensive characterization of such cells is absolutely crucial to prevent safety risks.
Here, we performed SWATH-MS analysis to characterize changes in proteome of human neural stem cells (NSCs) during their differentiation either spontaneously by withdrawal of EGF and FGF2 in cell culture media or by trophic support of BDNF/GDNF growth factors. We quantified about 2800 proteins over the 28 days of differentiation and showed that changes in cellular proteomes are caused mostly by differentiation time course, rather than type of differentiation itself and that the major changes in protein expression occurred between day 0 and day 7 of both differentiations.