Exogenous Pax6 nucleic acid expression in primate neural stem cells maintains proliferation without differentiation
A transcription factor both necessary and sufficient for human neuroectoderm specification, Pax6, as well as applications thereof, is disclosed.
1. An isolated primate primitive neural stem cell (primate pNSC) that overexpresses an exogenous Pax6 nucleic acid sequence, wherein said Pax6 expression is sufficient to maintain proliferating Pax6+/Sox1 primate pNSCs in vitro without differentiation.
2. A population of the primate pNSCs of claim 1 , wherein said Pax6 expression is sufficient to maintain proliferating Pax6+/Sox1 primate pNSCs in vitro without differentiation.
3. The population of primate pNSCs in claim 2 , wherein the cells continue to proliferate without differentiating.
4. The population of primate pNSCs in claim 3 , wherein the cells continue to proliferate without differentiating for at least a week.
5. The population of primate pNSCs in claim 3 , wherein the cells continue to proliferate without differentiating for at least two weeks.
6. The population of claim 2 , wherein the primate is human.
7. The primate primitive neural stem cell (pNSC) of claim 1 , wherein the cell is capable of differentiating into a neuron, an astrocyte, or an oligodendrocyte.
8. The primate pNSC of claim 7 , wherein the neuron is a projection neuron of the brain or spinal cord.
9. The primate pNSC of claim 1 , wherein the primate pNSC is derived from a pluripotent stem cell.
10. The primate pNSC of claim 9 , wherein the pluripotent stem cell is an embryonic stem cell.
11. The primate pNSC of claim 9 , wherein the pluripotent stem cell is an induced pluripotent stem cell.