胚胎干细胞在用于细胞替代疗法治疗退行性疾病等研究、以及作为发育和分化的研究模型中具有重要作用。利用胚胎干细胞定向分化为特定类型细胞，应用于再生医学领域的理论研究与临床应用中，非人灵长类动物因其与人类系统发育上的亲缘关系而成为非常有价值的动物模型。人类胚胎干细胞在再生医学中的应用，必须先通过在非人灵长类动物模型上的验证后，才能应用于人类。
在进行恒河猴胚胎干细胞的神经分化的研究中，为研究特定大脑分区神经细胞及其开发利用，寻找一个简单有效的诱导神经分化体系十分重要。中国科学院动物研究所周琪研究组的陈欣洁、李天晴等博士，建立了单层培养诱导分化法，并结合含有HGF+G5的化学限定培养基用于诱导恒河猴胚胎干细胞的神经分化，证明了贴壁培养时含有HGF和G5的培养基更容易得到高度富集的可扩大培养的神经前体细胞，这些神经前体细胞表达不同的神经系标记、脊髓标记及眼部基因、中脑基因等，表明此单层培养体系可作为诱导分化神经亚型的模型；并发现通过这种方式获得的神经前体细胞能分化成三种神经细胞系，有进一步分化成大脑特定部位细胞的潜能，表明这一体系也能够作为研究非人类灵长类动物神经元发生中细胞命运特化机制的模型。因此，优化后的单层培养体系不仅为研究非人灵长类诱导分化神经亚型及神经元发生中细胞命运特化机制提供了重要模型，同时为研究帕金森病等人类神经退行性疾病的发生机理及治疗手段提供了重要模型，为人类胚胎干细胞在再生医学中的应用提供了良好借鉴。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Reprod Biomed Online. 2009 Sep;19(3):426-33.
Neural progenitors derived from monkey embryonic stem cells in a simple monoculture system
Chen X, Li T, Li X, Xie Y, Guo X, Ji S, Niu Y, Yu Y, Ding C, Yao R, Yang S, Ji W, Zhou Q.
State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
A simple monoculture system, combined with a chemically defined medium containing hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and G5 supplement, was used to induce rhesus monkey embryonic stem cells (rESC) directly into neuroepithelial (NE) cells. Under these conditions, the generation of NE cells did not require the formation of embryoid bodies or co-culture with other cell types. The NE cells could further develop to generate neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. These results demonstrate a simple approach to obtain enriched and expandable populations of neural progenitors. Importantly, unlike other systems, the neural progenitors obtained using this approach may possess the potential to differentiate into various regional neural cells. Finally, the results suggest that the time-dependent shift in the differentiation potential of the rESC-derived neural progenitors in vitro reflects the developmental events that occur during neurogenesis in vivo. Thus, this system can be used to study the mechanisms of cell fate specification during non-human primate neurogenesis.
