Molecular and Cellular Features of Murine Craniofacial and Trunk Neural Crest Cells as Stem Cell-Like Cells

Abstract

The outstanding differentiation capacities and easier access from adult tissues, cells derived from neural crest cells (NCCs) have fascinated scientists in developmental biology and regenerative medicine. Differentiation potentials of NCCs are known to depend on their originating regions. Here, we report differential molecular features between craniofacial (cNCCs) and trunk (tNCCs) NCCs by analyzing transcription profiles and sphere forming assays of NCCs from P0-Cre/floxed-EGFP mouse embryos. We identified up-regulation of genes linked to carcinogenesis in cNCCs that were not previously reported to be related to NCCs, which was considered to be, an interesting feature in regard with carcinogenic potentials of NCCs such as melanoma and neuroblastoma. Wnt signal related genes were statistically up-regulated in cNCCs, also suggesting potential involvement of cNCCs in carcinogenesis. We also noticed intense expression of mesenchymal and neuronal markers in cNCCs and tNCCs, respectively. Consistent results were obtained from in vitro sphere-forming and differentiation assays. These results were in accordance with previous notion about differential potentials of cNCCs and tNCCs. We thus propose that sorting NCCs from P0-Cre/floxed-EGFP mice might be useful for the basic and translational research of NCCs. Furthermore, these newly-identified genes up-regulated in cNCC would provide helpful information on NC-originating tumors, developmental disorders in NCC derivatives, and potential applications of NCCs in regenerative medicine.

Chromatin remodeler CHD7 regulates the stem cell identity of human neural progenitors

“…Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)/stromal cells share developmental similarities and differentiation potential with NCCs, consistent with the views that MSCs partially originate from NCCs (Takashima et al 2007;Nagoshi et al 2008;Fukuta et al 2014). For instance, the craniofacial mesenchyme and a subpopulation of bone marrow MSCs developmentally originate from NCCs (Chai et al 2000;Hagiwara et al 2014;Isern et al 2014;Wiszniak et al 2015). Moreover, the mesoderm is a major source of the MSCs that give rise to skeletal and connective tissues (Olsen et al 2000).…”

Dynamics of lineage commitment revealed by single-cell transcriptomics of differentiating embryonic stem cells

“…Expression in the long term cultured ectoderm-and XEN-like cells was compared to these tissue expression data sets from the literature: neural progenitor cells 64 , neural crest cells 65 , yolk sac 66 and a XEN cell line 67 .…”

CHD7, Oct3/4, Sox2, and Nanog control FoxD3 expression during mouse neural crest‐derived stem cell formation

“…The data presented above suggest that the products of pluripotent stem cell‐related genes regulate FoxD3. Furthermore, mouse neural crest‐derived cells have been known to express pluripotent stem cell‐related genes . Therefore, we analyzed the expression of FoxD3 and pluripotent stem cell‐related genes in mouse embryonic DRGs, a typical tissue containing NCSCs.…”

“…In addition, CHD7 and the products of the pluripotent stem cell‐related genes, which contain octamer‐binding transcription factor 3/4 ( Oct3/4 ), Sox2 , and Nanog , colocalize at CHD7 binding sites of target gene enhancers marked with H3K4me1 in ES cells . Furthermore, it has been shown that mouse neural crest cells and mouse neural crest‐derived cells express Oct3/4, Sox2, and Nanog . Thus, these pluripotent stem cell‐related genes may participate in the formation of mouse NCSCs.…”