Derivation of Neural Stem Cells from human adult peripheral CD34+ Cells for an Autologous Model of Neuroinflammation

Activated T cells inhibit neurogenesis in adult animal brain and cultured human fetal neural stem cells (NSC). However, the role of inhibition of neurogenesis in human neuroinflammatory diseases is still uncertain because of the difficulty in obtaining adult NSC from patients. Recent developments in cell reprogramming suggest that NSC may be derived directly from adult fibroblasts. We generated NSC from adult human peripheral CD34+ cells by transfecting the cells with Sendai virus constructs containing Sox-2, Oct3/4, C-MyC and Klf-4. The derived NSC could be differentiated to astroglia and action potential firing neurons. Co-culturing NSC with activated autologous T cells or treatment with recombinant granzyme B caused inhibition of neurogenesis as indicated by decreased NSC proliferation and neuronal differentiation. Thus, we have established a unique autologous in vitro model to study the pathophysiology of neuroinflammatory diseases that has potential for usage in personalized medicine. 11 Human samples from 7 sources representing 4 different cell types: 2 CD34 (CD34+ cells purified from adult peripheral blood), 3 iNS (induced Neural Stem Cells derived directly from CD34+ cells), 2 iNS derived from iPSC (Neural Stem cells differentiated from induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from CD34+ cells), 4 NPC (human primary cultured neural progenitor cells)