Human embryonic stem cells differentiated in dopaminergic neurons. Homo sapiens

Human embryonic stem cells have been a great interest due to its potential to provide a renewable source of surrogate dopamine neurons for transplantation into Parkinson’s disease patients. We have differentiated hESCs with a monolayer of PA6 cells under 2D and 3D systems for 28 days. Genome-wide microarray analysis showed that our 3D samples increased expression of genes that are involved in neuronal developments such as Wnt, hedgehog and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling pathways. The results suggest that the 3D differentiation system may have affected the regulatory or signalling mechanisms which enhanced the rate of differentiation towards ectoderm. Overall design: 3 biological replicates for 2D samples and 2 biological replicates for 3D samples.