Int. J. Dev. Biol. 61: 407 - 413 (2017)

https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.160380tm

Vol 61, Issue 6-7

Galectin-1 enhances the generation of neural crest cells

Original Article | Published: 11 July 2017

Tsutomu Motohashi*^,1,4, Masahiro Nishioka¹, Daisuke Kitagawa¹, Norito Kawamura¹, Natsuki Watanabe¹, Takanori Wakaoka², Toshihiko Kadoya³ and Takahiro Kunisada^1,4

¹Department of Tissue and Organ Development, Regeneration and Advanced Medical Science, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu, ²Department of Otolaryngology, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu, ³Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Engineering, Maebashi Institute of Technology, Maebashi, Gunma and ⁴Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

Neural crest (NC) cells are multipotent cells that emerge from the dorsal region of the neural tube. After delaminating from the neural tube, NC cells migrate throughout the developing embryo and differentiate into various cells: neurons and glial cells of the peripheral nervous system, melanocytes of skin, and skeletal elements of the face and head. We previously analyzed the gene expression profile of a NC subpopulation isolated from Sox10-IRES-Venus mice and found that the carbohydrate-binding protein, Galectin-1 (Gal-1) was strongly expressed in generating NC cells. In the present study, we identified GAL-1 as a factor that promotes NC cell generation. Gal-1 was significantly expressed in NC cells generated in explanted neural tubes. The presence of GAL-1 enhanced the generation of NC-like cells from mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. In the differentiation of ES cells into NC-like cells, GAL-1 enhanced neurogenesis in the early stages and facilitated NC-like cell generation in the later stages. GAL-1 also enhanced the generation of NC cells from explanted neural tubes. These results suggest that GAL-1 plays a facilitative role in NC cell generation.

Keywords

neural crest cell, galectin-1, mouse embryonic stem cell