The influence of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ1 during differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells to neural cells

Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma, belongs to PPARs, which exerts various metabolic functions including differentiation process. To testify the importance of PPAR gamma in neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), its expression level was assessed. Data revealed an elevation in expression level of PPAR gamma when neural precursors (NPs) are formed upon retinoic acid treatment. Thus, involvement of PPAR gamma in two stages of neural differentiation of mESCs, during and post-NPs formation was examined by application of its agonist and antagonist. Our results indicated that PPAR gamma inactivation via treatment with GW9662 during NPs formation, reduced expression of neural precursor and neural (neuronal and astrocytes) markers. However, PPAR gamma inactivation by antagonist treatment post-NPs formation stage only decreased the expression of mature astrocyte marker (Gfap) suggesting that inactivation of PPAR gamma by antagonist decreased astrocyte differentiation. Here, we have demonstrated the stage dependent role of PPAR gamma modulation on neural differentiation of mESCs by retinoic acid treatment for the first time. (C) 2011 International Society of Differentiation. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.