nCounter immune profiling of RC17 hESC-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and foetal ventral mesencephalon (fVM) dopamine cells

Here we performed targeted transcriptional analysis of immune relevant genes in RC17-human embyronic stem cells (hESCs), RC17-hESC derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and mature dopamine neurons (DAn), differentiated according to Nolbrant et al. 2017, with comparison to human primary foetal ventral mesencephalon. All cell types were analysed either without treatment (NT) or after 24hr exposure to 5 ng/ml interferon gamma (IFNg) stimulation. The RC17-hESC derived NPCs are currently being investigated in the STEM-PD clinical trial as a dopamine cell replacement for Parkinson's disease (NCT05635409), here we utilised the Nanostring nCounter Human Immunology V2 panel, plus an additional 20 gene codeset designed to capture additional genes related to T cell activation/inhibition and graft rejection, to measure changes in immune gene expression throughout the differentiation process from hESC to mature DAn and with comparison to previously engrafted, and well-tolerated, fVM tissue.