In vitro characterization of neural crest stem cells

Recent studies have shown that neural crest-derived progenitor cells can be found in diverse mammalian tissues including tissues that were not previously shown to contain neural crest derivatives, such as bone marrow. Theidentification of those ‘‘new’’ neural crest-derived progenitor cells opens new strategies for developing autologouscell replacement therapies in regenerative medicine. However, their potential use is still a challenge as only few neural crest-derived progenitor cells were found in those new accessible locations. In this study, we developed aprotocol, based on wnt1 and BMP2 effects, to enrich neural crest-derived cells from adult bone marrow. Those twofactors are known to maintain and stimulate the proliferation of embryonic neural crest stem cells, however, theireffects have never been characterized on neural crest cells isolated from adult tissues. Using multiple strategies frommicroarray to 2D-DIGE proteomic analyses, we characterized those recruited neural crest-derived cells, defining their identity and their differentiating abilities.