Human epidermal neural crest stem cells (hEPI-NCSC) - expanded versus pre-differentiated into neural stem cell-like cells

hEPI-NCSC are neural crest derived multipotent somatic stem cells that persist in hair follicle stem cell niche, termed the bulge, and persist into adulthood (Clewes O et al, 2011). The purpose of this project was to generate two gene expression profiles, (1) of ex vivo expanded hEPI-NCSC (XP) and (2) of cells, whihc after expansion were grown in a culture medium (NP1), which was empirically designed to pre-differentiate the multipotent stem cells into neural stem–cell like cells. Cells were pooled from three different donors