A Highly Efficient Astrocyte Differentiation Protocol for Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

This technology includes a robust and highly efficient protocol that differentiates induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) exclusively into nociceptors (also called sensory neurons) under chemically defined conditions. The use of hPSCs, including hESCs and iPSCs, holds great promise for disease modeling, drug discovery, and cell therapy. However, efficient and highly reproducible protocols have not been developed for most cell types that are relevant and urgently needed for translational applications. Systematic testing of various cell culture conditions and simultaneous manipulation of specific cell signaling pathways has led to the ability to directly induce astrogliogenesis from iPSCs with over 95% efficiency in less than 30 days. These cells displayed astrocyte morphologies and expressed typical astrocyte markers such as GFAP, NF-IA, and S100-B.