Overview

Spinal motor neurons (MNs) are a highly specialized type of neurons that reside in the ventral horns and project axons to muscles to control their movement. Degeneration of MNs is implicated in a number of devastating diseases, including spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Charcot-Marie-Tooth and poliomyelitis disease ^[1].  iPSC-derived motor neurons are valuable tools for biochemical analysis, disease modelling and clinical application of these diseases ^[2,3].  We are proud to provide the world’s first commercial human iPSC-derived motor neurons. Advantages of iXCells™ hiPSC-derived motor neurons:

A highly pure population of functional motor neurons 

iXCells Biotechnologies is pround to provide ready-to-use highly pure human motor neurons derived from normal iPS cell lines. These cells express typical markers of motor neurons, e.g. HB9 (MNX1), ISL-1, CHAT (Figure 1 and Figure 2). iXCells™ hiPSC-derived motor neurons are functionally validated with neuromuscular junction formation (Video 1-3). All the cells provided by iXCells are negative for mycoplasma, bacteria, yeast, and fungi. HIV-1, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. The basic donor  information (gender / age / race) is provided for each cell lot purchased.

iXCells™ motor neurons are available in both cryopreserved vials (2 million cells/vial) and fresh plate formats (12-well plate or 96-well plate). Most of the cells will express high level of HB9 and ISL-1 (Figure 1) after thawing in the Motor Neuron Maintenance Medium (Cat# MD-0022). And after cultured in the medium for 5-7 days, these cells will express high levels of CHAT and MAP2 (Figure 2). 

iXCells also provide customized differentiation service with your own iPS cell lines.  Please contact us at [email protected] for more details. 

Figure 1.  After cultured in Motor Neuron Maintenance Medium (Cat# MD-0022) on the Matrigel-coated plates for 2 days, more than 85% of the iXCells^TM motor neurons express HB9 (Figure A and A’),  and more than 90% of the cells express ISL1 (Figure B and B’). 

Figure 2.  After cultured in Motor Neuron Maintenance Medium on the Matrigel-coated plates for 5-7 days, more than 85% of the iPSC-derived motor neurons express ChAT (Figure A) and MAP2 (Figure B).

	Video 1. iXCellsTM human iPSC-derived motor neurons co-cultured with C2C12 mouse myotubes for 6 days.  The spontaneous contraction of myotubes was observed.
	Video 2. iXCellsTM human iPSC-derived motor neurons co-cultured with C2C12 mouse myotubes for 6 days.  The contraction of myotubes was stimulated in the presence of 100µM glutamate.
	Video 3. iXCellsTM human iPSC-derived motor neurons co-cultured with C2C12 mouse myotubes for 6 days.  The contraction of myotubes was inhibited by adding 100µM Curare (a neurotoxin that inhibits acetylcholine receptor at the neuromuscular junction).

 

Product Details