Neuronal reprogramming of mouse and human fibroblasts using transcription factors involved in suprachiasmatic nucleus development

Masatoshi Hirayama; Ludovic S Mure; Hiep D Le; Satchidananda Panda

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.109051

Neuronal reprogramming of mouse and human fibroblasts using transcription factors involved in suprachiasmatic nucleus development

iScience. 2024 Jan 30;27(3):109051. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109051. eCollection 2024 Mar 15.

Authors

Masatoshi Hirayama^{1

2}, Ludovic S Mure^{1

3

4}, Hiep D Le¹, Satchidananda Panda¹

Affiliations

¹ Regulatory Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA.
² Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Ophthalmology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of BioMedical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

Abstract

The hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is composed of heterogenous populations of neurons that express signaling peptides such as vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) and regulate circadian rhythms in behavior and physiology. SCN neurons acquire functional and morphological specializations from waves of transcription factors (TFs) that are expressed during neurogenesis. However, the in vitro generation of SCN neurons has never been achieved. Here we supplemented a highly efficient neuronal conversion protocol with TFs that are expressed during SCN neurogenesis, namely Six3, Six6, Dlx2, and Lhx1. Neurons induced from mouse and human fibroblasts predominantly exhibited neuronal properties such as bipolar or multipolar morphologies, GABAergic neurons with expression of VIP. Our study reveals a critical contribution of these TFs to the development of vasoactive intestinal peptide (Vip) expressing neurons in the SCN, suggesting the regenerative potential of neuronal subtypes contained in the SCN for future SCN regeneration and in vitro disease remodeling.

Keywords: Cell biology; Molecular biology; Neuroscience.