Differentiation of Neural Stem Cells via Electrical Stimulation
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2019-12
Authors
Jackson, Kyle
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Sakaguchi, Donald
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Abstract
Central nervous system (CNS) injuries of the brain and spinal cord affect more than 380 people in every 100,000 worldwide. However, due to a lack of available therapies and treatments, most affected individuals never recover from these types of injuries. Some past therapeutic strategies have focused on neural stem cell differentiation using chemicals and growth factors, however, these methods take weeks to complete and can cost thousands of dollars. The work outlined in this poster focuses on the use of electrical stimulation to differentiate neural stem cells on conductive and biodegradable poly-L lactic acid scaffolds. The data acquired from these experiments revealed that electrical stimulation is an effective strategy to differentiate adult hippocampal progenitor cells (AHPCs), has a shorter duration, and is significantly cheaper. Further, it was observed that increasing stimulation voltage led to higher expression of TuJ1 and RIP, and lower levels of Ki-67 expression. Increased levels of TuJ1 and RIP expression were indicative of more newly-differentiated neurons and oligodendrocytes. Lower expression levels of Ki-67, a proliferating cell marker, indicated a higher degree of neural stem cell differentiation. These data provide promising results for the use of electrical stimulation to direct stem cell differentiation and to treat CNS injuries.
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