Fig. 1

hiPSC-astrocyte progenitors engraft the mouse brain and differentiate into astrocytes within chimeric AD and WT mice. (a) Schematics of the differentiation and transplantation procedures. hiPSCs: human induced pluripotent stem cells, hNPCs: human neural progenitor cells, hAPCs: human astrocyte progenitor cells, SB: SB431542, LDN: LDN193189, FGF2: fibroblast growth factor 2, AGS: astrocyte growth supplement. Scale bars: 100 µm. (b) RFP staining (red) shows the distribution of hiPSC-derived astrocytes on a coronal brain section of a chimeric mouse five months after transplantation. Scale bar: 200 µm. (c) Dot map displaying the widespread distribution of the hiPSC-derived astrocytes (RFP, red) in four coronal sections of this mouse brain. (d-e) RFP (red) and hNuclei (green) expressing hiPSC-astrocytes depict a complex fine structure in the cortex (CTX) and corpus callosum (CC) of chimeric mice. Scale bars: 50 µm (d), 25 µm (e). (d’-e’) Enlarged images of the inserts in d and e. (f-i) Engrafted hiPSC-astrocytes (RFP+, red) express GFAP (f), S100b (g), Vimentin (h) and AQP4 (i) (green) five months after transplantation. Scale bars: 25 μm. (j) Percentage of RFP+ cells expressing GFAP (n = 14 mice). (k) Percentage of hNuclei+ cells expressing RFP (n = 15 mice). (l) Percentage of RFP+ cells expressing NeuN and APC (n = 9 mice). Data are represented as mean ± SEM