Sorting of Sox1-GFP Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Enhances Neuronal Identity Acquisition upon Factor-Free Monolayer Differentiation

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can give rise to all the differentiated cell types of the organism, including neurons. However, the efficiency and specificity of neural differentiation protocols still needs to be improved in order to plan their use in cell replacement therapies. In this study, we modified a monolayer differentiation protocol by selecting green fluorescent protein (GFP) positive neural precursors with fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). The enhancement of neural differentiation was obtained by positively selecting for neural precursors, while specific neuronal subtypes spontaneously differentiated without additional cues; a comparable but delayed behavior was also observed in the GFP negative population, indicating that sorting settings per se eliminated nonneural and undifferentiated ESCs. This highly reproducible approach could be applied as a strategy to enhance neuronal differentiation and could be the first step toward the selection of pure populations of neurons, to be generated by the administration of specific factors in high throughput screening assays.