New cranial neural crest cell line developed

Researchers have successfully developed a stable population of neural crest cells derived from mice that can be grown in large quantities in the laboratory and that demonstrates the potential to develop into many different cell types needed throughout the body. This powerful new research tool for understanding stem cell biology and human development and disease is described in an article published in Stem Cells and Development.

Mamoru Ishii and colleagues from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, present their work leading to the development of two neural crest cell lines with stem cell characteristics in the article "A Stable Cranial Neural Crest Cell Line from Mouse." The 09-1 cell line is capable of differentiating into four main cell types: bone, muscle, brain, and cartilage/connective tissue.

"This exciting report is the first to characterize cranial neural crest cell lines isolated from the mouse embryo, which definitively demonstrate multipotency and long-term propagation," says Editor-in-Chief Graham C. Parker, PhD, research professor, Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine.