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Direct Cell Reprogramming and Phenotypic Conversion: An Analysis of Experimental Attempts to Transform Astrocytes into Neurons in Adult Animals
Central nervous system (CNS) repair after injury or disease remains an unresolved problem in neurobiology research and an unmet medical need. Directly reprogramming or converting astrocytes to neurons (AtN) in adult animals has been investigated as a potential strategy to facilitate brain and spinal...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9954435/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36831283 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells12040618 |
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author | Dennison, Rachel Usuga, Esteban Chen, Harriet Paul, Jacob Z. Arbelaez, Christian A. Teng, Yang D. |
author_facet | Dennison, Rachel Usuga, Esteban Chen, Harriet Paul, Jacob Z. Arbelaez, Christian A. Teng, Yang D. |
author_sort | Dennison, Rachel |
collection | PubMed |
description | Central nervous system (CNS) repair after injury or disease remains an unresolved problem in neurobiology research and an unmet medical need. Directly reprogramming or converting astrocytes to neurons (AtN) in adult animals has been investigated as a potential strategy to facilitate brain and spinal cord recovery and advance fundamental biology. Conceptually, AtN strategies rely on forced expression or repression of lineage-specific transcription factors to make endogenous astrocytes become “induced neurons” (iNs), presumably without re-entering any pluripotent or multipotent states. The AtN-derived cells have been reported to manifest certain neuronal functions in vivo. However, this approach has raised many new questions and alternative explanations regarding the biological features of the end products (e.g., iNs versus neuron-like cells, neural functional changes, etc.), developmental biology underpinnings, and neurobiological essentials. For this paper per se, we proposed to draw an unconventional distinction between direct cell conversion and direct cell reprogramming, relative to somatic nuclear transfer, based on the experimental methods utilized to initiate the transformation process, aiming to promote a more in-depth mechanistic exploration. Moreover, we have summarized the current tactics employed for AtN induction, comparisons between the bench endeavors concerning outcome tangibility, and discussion of the issues of published AtN protocols. Lastly, the urgency to clearly define/devise the theoretical frameworks, cell biological bases, and bench specifics to experimentally validate primary data of AtN studies was highlighted. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9954435 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-99544352023-02-25 Direct Cell Reprogramming and Phenotypic Conversion: An Analysis of Experimental Attempts to Transform Astrocytes into Neurons in Adult Animals Dennison, Rachel Usuga, Esteban Chen, Harriet Paul, Jacob Z. Arbelaez, Christian A. Teng, Yang D. Cells Review Central nervous system (CNS) repair after injury or disease remains an unresolved problem in neurobiology research and an unmet medical need. Directly reprogramming or converting astrocytes to neurons (AtN) in adult animals has been investigated as a potential strategy to facilitate brain and spinal cord recovery and advance fundamental biology. Conceptually, AtN strategies rely on forced expression or repression of lineage-specific transcription factors to make endogenous astrocytes become “induced neurons” (iNs), presumably without re-entering any pluripotent or multipotent states. The AtN-derived cells have been reported to manifest certain neuronal functions in vivo. However, this approach has raised many new questions and alternative explanations regarding the biological features of the end products (e.g., iNs versus neuron-like cells, neural functional changes, etc.), developmental biology underpinnings, and neurobiological essentials. For this paper per se, we proposed to draw an unconventional distinction between direct cell conversion and direct cell reprogramming, relative to somatic nuclear transfer, based on the experimental methods utilized to initiate the transformation process, aiming to promote a more in-depth mechanistic exploration. Moreover, we have summarized the current tactics employed for AtN induction, comparisons between the bench endeavors concerning outcome tangibility, and discussion of the issues of published AtN protocols. Lastly, the urgency to clearly define/devise the theoretical frameworks, cell biological bases, and bench specifics to experimentally validate primary data of AtN studies was highlighted. MDPI 2023-02-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9954435/ /pubmed/36831283 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells12040618 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Dennison, Rachel Usuga, Esteban Chen, Harriet Paul, Jacob Z. Arbelaez, Christian A. Teng, Yang D. Direct Cell Reprogramming and Phenotypic Conversion: An Analysis of Experimental Attempts to Transform Astrocytes into Neurons in Adult Animals |
title | Direct Cell Reprogramming and Phenotypic Conversion: An Analysis of Experimental Attempts to Transform Astrocytes into Neurons in Adult Animals |
title_full | Direct Cell Reprogramming and Phenotypic Conversion: An Analysis of Experimental Attempts to Transform Astrocytes into Neurons in Adult Animals |
title_fullStr | Direct Cell Reprogramming and Phenotypic Conversion: An Analysis of Experimental Attempts to Transform Astrocytes into Neurons in Adult Animals |
title_full_unstemmed | Direct Cell Reprogramming and Phenotypic Conversion: An Analysis of Experimental Attempts to Transform Astrocytes into Neurons in Adult Animals |
title_short | Direct Cell Reprogramming and Phenotypic Conversion: An Analysis of Experimental Attempts to Transform Astrocytes into Neurons in Adult Animals |
title_sort | direct cell reprogramming and phenotypic conversion: an analysis of experimental attempts to transform astrocytes into neurons in adult animals |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9954435/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36831283 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells12040618 |
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