Generation of Locus Coeruleus Norepinephrine Neurons from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells [snRNA-seq]

Central norepinephrine (NE) neurons, mainly located in the Locus coeruleus (LC), play roles in a wide range of behavioral and physiological processes. How the human LC-NE neurons develop and what roles they play in the pathophysiology of human diseases is poorly understood, partly due to the unavailability of functional human LC-NE neurons. Here we established a technology for efficient generation of LC-NE neurons from human pluripotent stem cells by identifying a novel role of ACTIVIN A in regulating the LC-NE transcription factors in the dorsal rhombomere 1 (r1) progenitors. The in vitro generated human LC-NE neurons not only display extensive axonal arborization and release/uptake NE, but also exhibit the pacemaker activity, calcium oscillation, and in particular chemoreceptor activity in response to CO2. Multiple timepoint single nucleus RNA-Seq (snRNA-Seq) analysis captured the dynamic NE differentiation process, confirmed the NE cell population and revealed the differentiation trajectory from hindbrain progenitors to NE neurons via ASCL1 expressing precursor stage. The LC-NE neurons engineered with a NE sensor reliably reported the extracellular NE level. The availability of functional human LC-NE neurons enables investigation of their roles in the pathogenesis of and development of therapeutics for neural psychiatric and degenerative diseases. Overall design: we performed single nucleus RNA-Seq (snRNA-Seq) to systematically investigate the NE differentiation process unbiasedly. Given the dynamic changes of NE related genes during this process, we collected the differentiation cells at day 6, day 11 and day 14 to capture the key statuses during NE differentiation