Figure 2.

Human cells used for preclinical or biomedical neurological research. For scientific review, we sampled a small fraction of the available peer-reviewed primary research articles in which human cells are transplanted into the CNS of mice, rats, and nonhuman primates. From these studies, a variety of cell lines were used which primarily fall into 3 categories: Embryonic stem cell (ESC) derived, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived and fetal-derived. These cells lines can either be expanded then differentiated into neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PC) or glial progenitors, or transplanted directly with minimal in vitro manipulation (fluorescent- or magnetic- activated cell sorting) and no in vitro expansion (primary fetal cells). Within our review, an additional category of NS/PC cell lines is identified, which includes direct conversion of somatic tissue to NS/PC and the teratocarcinoma-derived Ntera2/D1 cell line.