Characterization and preferential differentiation of adult rat spinal cord precursor cells in vitro
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Neural stem/precursor cells (NSPCs) self-renew and differentiate into neurons and glia. NSPC transplantation for spinal cord repair is a promising strategy for restoring or preserving neurological function. To create effective therapies and understand potential mechanisms of repair, it is essential to define the differentiation potential of NSPCs prior to transplantation. We found that cervical pericentral canal spinal cord NSPCs differentiated into radial glia (RG) (64.8%), oligodendrocytes (56.5%), astrocytes (16.7%), and neurons (5.6%). We showed using electron microscopy (EM) that differentiated oligodendrocytes produce myelin and wrap axons. EM images of NSPCs intimately apposed to radial processes suggest that spinal cord NSPCs produce RG that act as guidance scaffolds. EM also showed that NSPCs within the neurosphere can phagocytose. Spheres from the peripheral white matter produced only glial restricted precursors (GRPs), and 65% of the pericentral canal spheres were GRP spheres, since they produced only glial progeny. Brain derived NSPCs did not differ from cervical spinal cord NSPCs with respect to the percentages of neurons, astrocytes, or oligodendrocytes, but did produce 26.9% less RG. Lumbar spinal cord NSPCs produced 30.8% fewer RG and 6.9% more neurons, compared with cervical spinal cord NSPCs. Preferential differentiation of spinal cord NSPCs was achieved by treatment with PDGF and CNTF, and by increasing the time in culture, increasing the serum concentration and using collagen as a cell matrix. The current study characterized exogenously expanded adult rat spinal cord NSPCs. The purpose was to compare the region specific differentiation of NSPCs isolated from different levels of the spinal cord (cervical versus lumbar), different regions along the neuraxis (brain versus cervical spinal cord), and different regions within the spinal cord (pericentral canal versus peripheral white matter). Time in culture, growth factors, cell matrix, and serum concentration were studied to determine their effect on the differentiation potential of adult cervical spinal cord NSPCs. Overall, these findings provide a basis for understanding the region specific differentiation potential of spinal cord NSPCs and their plasticity in response to exogenous factors and manipulations of their in vitro environment, which is important for application to future NSPC transplantation trials for spinal cord injury.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".