Structure and ultrastructure of neurospheres spontaneously generated in culture from sheep ovarian cortical cells. Concepción Rojo Salvador Universidad Complutense de Madrid Facultad de Veterinaria Belén Sánchez-Maldonado Universidad Complutense de Madrid Facultad de Veterinaria María de Lourdes Galicia Universidad Complutense de Madrid Facultad de Veterinaria Alfredo González-Gil Universidad Complutense de Madrid Facultad de Veterinaria Rosa Ana Picazo González (
[email protected] ) Universidad Complutense de Madrid Facultad de Veterinaria Research article Keywords: Spheroid, Neurosphere, Light cells, Dark cells, Ovarian cortical cells, Neural stem cells, Neural progenitors Posted Date: December 6th, 2019 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.2.18012/v1 License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Read Full License Page 1/30 Abstract Background: Neurospheres derived from adult stem cells of non-neural tissues represent a promising source of neural stem cells (NSCs) and neural progenitor cells (NPCs) for autologous cell therapy in neurological diseases. Analyzing the ne structure of neurospheres can provide pivotal information regarding the phenotype of spheroid-integrating cells, being useful for cell characterization during differentiation, and oncogenic transformation. Neurospheres can be generated by culturing ovarian cortical cells under particular conditions. In order to assess the reliability of use of these spheroids in regenerative medicine, developmental biology, and to state whether they share morphological features with central nervous system (CNS) derived neurospheres, they were analyzed by light and transmission electron microscopy. Sheep ovarian cortical cells were cultured in serum-free medium for 21 days to generate neurospheres. On days 10, 15 and 21 of culture, expression of pluripotency (Nanog, Oct4, Sox2), and NSC/NPC (nestin, Pax6, P75NTR) transcripts by qRT-PCR, immunolocalization of NSC/NPC antigens (nestin, Pax6, P75NTR), structure, and ultrastructure, were analyzed in spheroids.