Skip to main content

Dissection and Preparation of Human Primary Fetal Ganglionic Eminence Tissue for Research and Clinical Applications

  • Protocol
  • First Online:
Huntington’s Disease

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1780))

  • 3984 Accesses

Abstract

Here, we describe detailed dissection and enzymatic dissociation protocols for the ganglionic eminences from the developing human brain to generate viable quasi-single cell suspensions for subsequent use in transplantation or cell culture. These reliable and reproducible protocols can provide tissue for use in the study of the developing human brain, as well as for the preparation of donor cells for transplantation in Huntington’s disease (HD). For use in the clinic as a therapy for HD, the translation of these protocols from the research laboratory to the GMP suite is described, including modification to reagents used and appropriate monitoring and tissue release criteria.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Walker FO (2007) Huntington’s disease. Lancet 369(9557):218–228

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. O’Rahilly RR, Müller F (2006) The embryonic human brain: an atlas of developmental stages. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ

    Book  Google Scholar 

  3. Grasbon-Frodl E, Nakao N, Lindvall O, Brundin P (1996) Phenotypic development of the human embryonic striatal primordium: a study of cultured and grafted neurons from the lateral and medial ganglionic eminences. Neuroscience 73:171–183

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Nakao N, Itakura T (2000) Fetal tissue transplants in animal models of Huntington’s disease: the effects on damaged neuronal circuitry and behavioral deficits. Prog Neurobiol 61:313–338

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Hauser RA, Furtado S, Cimino CR et al (2002) Bilateral human fetal striatal transplantation in Huntington’s disease. Neurology 58:687–695

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Rosser AE, Barker RA, Harrower T et al (2002) Unilateral transplantation of human primary fetal tissue in four patients with Huntington’s disease: NEST-UK safety report ISRCTN no 36485475. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 73:678–685

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Bachoud-Lévi A-C (2009) Neural grafts in Huntington’s disease: viability after 10 years. Lancet Neurol 8:979–981

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Bachoud-Levi AC, Bourdet C, Brugieres P et al (2000) Safety and tolerability assessment of intrastriatal neural allografts in five patients with Huntington’s disease. Exp Neurol 161:194–202

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Bachoud-Lévi A-C, Gaura V, Brugières P et al (2006) Effect of fetal neural transplants in patients with Huntington’s disease 6 years after surgery: a long-term follow-up study. Lancet Neurol 5:303–309

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Bachoud-Lévi A-C, Rémy P, Nǵuyen JP et al (2000) Motor and cognitive improvements in patients with Huntington’s disease after neural transplantation. Lancet 356(9246):1975–1979

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Rosser AE, Bachoud-Lévi A-C (2012) Clinical trials of neural transplantation in Huntington’s disease. Prog Brain Res 200:345–371

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Lelos MJ, Roberton VH, Vinh NN et al (2016) Direct comparison of rat- and human-derived ganglionic eminence tissue grafts on motor function. Cell Transplant 25:665–675

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Arber C, Precious SV, Cambray S et al (2015) Activin A directs striatal projection neuron differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells. Development 142:1375–1386

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Delli Carri A, Onorati M, Lelos M et al (2013) Developmentally coordinated extrinsic signals drive human pluripotent stem cell differentiation toward authentic DARPP-32+ medium-sized spiny neurons. Development 140:301–312

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Ma L, Hu B, Liu Y et al (2012) Human embryonic stem cell-derived GABA neurons correct locomotion deficits in quinolinic acid-lesioned mice. Cell Stem Cell 10:455–464

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Aubry L, Bugi A, Lefort N et al (2008) Striatal progenitors derived from human ES cells mature into DARPP32 neurons in vitro and in quinolinic acid-lesioned rats. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:16707–16712

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Parmar M, Takahashi J, Studer L, Barker RA (2017) GFORCE-PD still going strong in 2016. NPJ Parkinsons Dis 3:16014

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Onorati M, Castiglioni V, Biasci D et al (2014) Molecular and functional definition of the developing human striatum. Nat Neurosci 17:1804–1815

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Straccia M, Carrere J, Rosser AE, Canals JM (2016) Human t-DARPP is induced during striatal development. Neuroscience 333:320–330

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Straccia M, Garcia-Diaz Barriga G, Sanders P et al (2015) Quantitative high-throughput gene expression profiling of human striatal development to screen stem cell-derived medium spiny neurons. Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev 2:15030

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Precious SV, Kelly CM, Reddington AE et al (2016) FoxP1 marks medium spiny neurons from precursors to maturity and is required for their differentiation. Exp Neurol 282:9–18

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Schmidt RH, Björklund A, Stenevi U (1981) Intracerebral grafting of dissociated CNS tissue suspensions: a new approach for neuronal transplantation to deep brain sites. Brain Res 218:347–356

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Dunnett SB, Björklund A (2000) Dissecting embryonic neural tissues for transplantation. In: Dunnett SB, Boulton AA, Baker GB (eds) Neural transplantation methods. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, pp 3–25

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  24. Rosser AE, Barker RA, Armstrong RJE et al (2003) Staging and preparation of human fetal striatal tissue for neural transplantation in Huntington’s disease. Cell Transplant 12:679–686

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Björklund A, Schmidt RH, Stenevi U (1980) Functional reinnervation of the neostriatum in the adult rat by use of intraparenchymal grafting of dissociated cell suspensions from the substantia nigra. Cell Tissue Res 212:39–45

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Björklund A, Stenevi U, Schmidt RH et al (1983) Intracerebral grafting of neuronal cell suspensions. I. Introduction and general methods of preparation. Acta Physiol Scand Suppl 522:1–7

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Kelly CM, Precious SV, Torres EM et al (2011) Medical terminations of pregnancy: a viable source of tissue for cell replacement therapy for neurodegenerative disorders. Cell Transplant 20:503–513

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Precious SV, Zietlow R, Dunnett SB et al (2017) Is there a place for human fetal-derived stem cells for cell replacement therapy in Huntington’s disease? Neurochem Int 106:114–121

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Barker RA, Mason SL, Harrower TP et al (2013) The long-term safety and efficacy of bilateral transplantation of human fetal striatal tissue in patients with mild to moderate Huntington’s disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 84:657–665

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Polkinghorne J (1989) Review of the guidance on the research use of fetuses and fetal material. HM Stationery Office

    Google Scholar 

  31. Evtouchenko L, Studer L, Spenger C et al (1996) A mathematical model for the estimation of human embryonic and fetal age. Cell Transplant 5:453–464

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Hurelbrink CB, Armstrong RJ, Barker RA et al (2000) Hibernated human fetal striatal tissue: successful transplantation in a rat model of Huntington’s disease. Cell Transplant 9:743–749

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Hurelbrink CB, Tyers P, Armstrong RJE, Dunnett SB, Barker RA, Rosser AE (2003) Long-term hibernation of human fetal striatal tissue does not adversely affect its differentiation in vitro or graft survival: implications for clinical trials in Huntington’s disease. Cell Transplant 12:687–695

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Piroth T, Pauly M-C, Schneider C et al (2014) Transplantation of human fetal tissue for neurodegenerative diseases: validation of a new protocol for microbiological analysis and bacterial decontamination. Cell Transplant 23:995–1007

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The protocols described in this chapter were developed using fetal samples from the South Wales Initiative for Fetal Tissue (SWIFT) Research Tissue Bank, and the Cardiff Fetal Tissue Bank (CFTB). These tissue banks have received funding from the Medical Research Council, the Welsh Government, the Brain Repair and Intracranial Neurotherapeutics (BRAIN) Unit funded through Health and Care Research Wales, and EU FP7 projects TransEuro and Repair-HD. The authors would like to acknowledge the help and contributions of all past and present members of the SWIFT team from within the Brain Repair Group, Cardiff University, and University Hospital of Wales.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sophie V. Precious .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

About this protocol

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this protocol

Roberton, V.H., Rosser, A.E., McGorrian, AM., Precious, S.V. (2018). Dissection and Preparation of Human Primary Fetal Ganglionic Eminence Tissue for Research and Clinical Applications. In: Precious, S., Rosser, A., Dunnett, S. (eds) Huntington’s Disease. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1780. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7825-0_26

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7825-0_26

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7824-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7825-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics