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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Embryonic Development
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1516596
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Cilia and Flagella Research View all 4 articles
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Introduction: Ciliopathies are a group of human Mendelian disorders caused by dysfunction of primary cilia, small quasi-ubiquitous sensory organelles. Patients suffering from ciliopathies often display prominent neurodevelopmental phenotypes, underscoring the importance of primary cilia during development and for function of the central nervous system (CNS). Human tissues, in particular from the CNS, are very hard to obtain for research. Patient derived-or genetically engineered human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are therefore a precious resource for investigating the role of cilia in human neurons.In this study we used a variety of 2D and 3D neuronal differentiation protocols in multiple hiPSC lines and systematically analyzed ciliation rates and ciliary length in hiPSCs, neural stem cells (NSCs), immature and different types of mature neurons using immunofluorescence.We found that ciliation rate varied substantially between cell lines and differentiation protocols. Moreover, ciliation rate depended on differentiation stage, being maximal in NSCs and decreasing with neuronal maturation. In various types of mature neurons obtained with different protocols, we found ciliation rates to be as low as ~10%. Neuronal density also played an important role, with higher ciliation in denser cultures. We further investigated the ciliary protein content in these cells at different differentiation stages using commonly used antibodies against ARL13B, INPP5E, AC3 and GPR161. Cilia in hiPSCs, NSCs and neurons were all positive for ARL13B, with a decreasing trend in intensity in more mature neurons.Likewise, INPP5E was present in all cilia analyzed, while AC3 positivity increased as maturation proceeded. Interestingly, we found that while GPR161 signal almost completely disappeared from cilia upon Sonic hedgehog (SHH) stimulation in NSCs and immature neurons, this was not the case in more mature neurons, suggesting a possible developmental time window for cilia-dependent SHH signaling.Taken together, our results provide a systematic description of cilia in hiPSCderived neuronal cells generated with different protocols, underscoring the importance of selecting the optimal model system and controls for investigating primary cilia in hiPSCderived neuronal cells.
Keywords: Cilia, Human iPSC (induced pluripotent stem cells), Neurons, ciliopathies, Immunofluorescence staining
Received: 24 Oct 2024; Accepted: 24 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Haenseler, Eschment, Evans, Brasili, Figueiro da Silva, Roethlisberger, Abidi, Jackson, Müller, Cowley and Bachmann-Gagescu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Walther Haenseler, URPP Adaptive Brain Circuits in Development and Learning, Zurich, Switzerland
Ruxandra Bachmann-Gagescu, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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