Serotonin neurons from stem cells

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working under the guidance of Dr. Su-Chun Zhang, managed to grow specialized neurons from stem cells that produce the neurotransmitter serotonin, a signaling compound that performs a wide range of functions in the brain.

Serotonin is involved in the regulation of many mental and somatic processes, such as emotions, sleep, anxiety, appetite, pulse and breathing. He also has a role in serious psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. According to Dr. Zhang, in fact, serotonin modulates every aspect of the functioning of the brain, including motor function. Serotonin is synthesized by a small number of neurons localized in one structure of the posterior part of the brain. And the vastness of the scope of this neurotransmitter is due to the fact that the processes of the neurons producing it reach almost all regions of the brain.

Since serotonin-producing neurons are formed before birth, in order to obtain such cells in laboratory conditions, the initial population of stem cells had to be placed in a specially selected microenvironment. The researchers managed to achieve this by introducing precise concentrations of various molecules into the cultivation medium in a certain sequence. The resulting neurons not only responded to electrical stimulation, but also produced serotonin.

The authors note that scientists have previously managed to grow similar neurons from embryonic cells, but the problem was that their small number in the resulting population made it impossible to register the production and release of serotonin. Instead, the neurons were identified by the presence of cellular markers, which is not enough to confirm their functionality.

In their work, the researchers demonstrated the ability of the obtained cells to respond to drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that regulate depression and anxiety by acting on the serotonin-mediated signaling mechanism.

Despite the fact that specialized cells grown from pluripotent cells are widely used for testing the toxicity of drugs, the authors pursue more serious goals. They hope that serotonin neurons grown according to their technique can help in the development of new more effective drugs, especially those affecting higher nervous functions, which are difficult to simulate in mice and rats.

The possibility of growing serotonin neurons from induced pluripotent stem cells derived from adult skin cells also opens up the possibility of finding personalized approaches to the treatment of diseases such as schizophrenia, characterized by a wide range of variability in response to treatment.

Article by Jianfeng Lu et al. Generation of serotonin neurons from human pluripotent stem cells is published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the University of Wisconsin-Madison: First serotonin neurons made from human stem cells.