NCE

Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) are important in mediating remyelination in response to demyelinating lesions. As such, OPCs represent an attractive cell population for use in cell replacement therapies to promote remyelination for treatment of human demyelinating diseases. High-purity OPCs have been generated from hESC and have been shown to initiate remyelination associated with improved motor skills in animal models of demyelination. We have previously determined that engraftment of hESC-derived OPCs into mice with established demyelination does not significantly improve clinical recovery nor reduce the severity of demyelination. Importantly, remyelination is limited following OPC transplantation. These findings highlight that the microenvironment is critical with regards to the remyelination potential of engrafted cells. In addition, we have determined that human OPCs are capable of migrating in response to proinflammatory molecules often associated with human neuroinflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis. This is an important observation in that it will likely be necessary for engrafted OPCs to be able to positionally navigate within tissue in order to move from the site of surgical transplantation to areas of damage to initiate repair and tissue remodeling. Finally, we have also made a novel discovery of a unique signaling pathway that protects OPCs from damage/death in response to treatment with proinflammatory cytokines. We believe this is an important and translationally relevant observation as OPCs are critical in contributing to remyelination and remyelination failure is an important clinical feature for many human demyelinating diseases inclusing spinal cord injury and MS. We have identified a putative protective ligand/receptor interaction affords protection from cytokine-induced apoptosis. These findings may reveal novel avenues for therapeutic intervention to prevent damage/death of OPCs and enhance remyelination.