Book of abstract 2008

Non-immortalized somatic neural stem cell line – possible
implementation for developmental neurotoxicity and oncological
research
Leonora Buzanska1 ,2, Krystyna Domanska Janik1, Hanna Winiarska1, Sandra Coecke2
1Medical Research Center, Warsaw, Poland; 2European Commission - DG JRC, IHCP-ECVAM, Italy
The promise held by neural stem cells (NSC) for the cell therapy of neurodegenerative
and oncological disorders is now widely accepted and stem cell research is focused on this
aspect of NSC application. In parallel, the NSC culture can be considered a model system
for in vitro screening of putative toxic or transforming factor effects on their proliferation,
viability and differentiation potential into neuronal cells. However, both the ethically
controversial sources of the NSC (human embryos or foetuses) and the limited life-span
of the somatic NSC cultures make these studies difficult. These two challenges were faced
by our group by showing the possibility of differentiation of the stem cells isolated from
Human Umbilical Cord Blood (HUCB) into neuronal cells (Buzanska et al., J.Cell Sci.,
115; 2002) and further by generating the first, non-transformed, clonal and karyotypically
stable somatic neural stem cell line “HUCB-NSC” (Buzanska et al., Stem Cells Dev., 15;
2006). Over six years of culturing, these cells have revealed a stable growth rate, an ability
to self-renew and the maintenance of differentiating potential into neuronal, astroglial
and oligodendroglial cells. The HUCB-NSC can be expanded and halted in culture at
different developmental stages – from floating non-differentiated stem cells to committed
progenitors and differentiated neuronal cells (Buzanska et al., Tox In Vitro., 19; 2005). The
developmental stages of HUCB-NSC have been truly characterized by transcriptional
profiling, immunocytochemistry and electrophysiological studies, thus HUCB-NSC as
a non–immortalized stem cell line can serve as an alternative, human-based model for in
vitro oncogenic transformations and developmental neurotoxicity studies.
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