Direct visualization of the transition status during neural differentiation by dual-fluorescent reporter human pluripotent stem cells

Abstract

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) can differentiate into neurons and glia via neural progenitor cells and are widely used for neurogenic studies. However, directly visualizing the transition status during the neural differentiation of live cells is difficult. Here, targeting NEUROG2 (NGN2) and TUBB3 as markers of neurogenic cells and neurons, respectively, we established TUBB3^EGFP/NGN2^TagRFP dual-reporter hiPSCs using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. We induced the differentiation of cortical neurons from dual-reporter hiPSCs, successfully visualizing cell-fate conversion in two-dimensional (2D) culture and 3D organoids. The reporter cells were used to monitor drug effects to enhance neural induction, responses to gene knockdown, transplantation to the embryonic mouse brain, and live imaging at single-cell resolution. Notably, the earliest REELIN-positive neurons showed a distinctive migration pattern, and their production was accelerated by HES1-function loss. Together, these results demonstrate the potential for dual-reporter hiPSCs in therapeutic neural regeneration strategies and studies on human cortical development.

Keywords: CRISPR-Cas9; NEUROG2; REELIN; TUBB3; brain organoids; genome edition; human iPSCs; live imaging; transplantation.