Serotonin Releasing Neurons

It would be useful, indeed, to have serotonin-producing cells in tissue culture to test drugs developed to treat mood, appetite and sleep disorders. To that aim, researchers at the Salk Institute (La Jolla, CA) have induced skin cells to become serotonin-secreting neurons. According to this report, “the team used existing tools to differentiate precursor cells into neurons and then used a new technique called a “lentiviral reporter for serotonergic neurons” to separate out the serotonin-releasing neurons so they could identify which genes were uniquely active in them. The team identified a cluster of six gene-activating proteins or transcription factors – NKX2.2, FEV, GATA2, LMX1B, ASCL1 and NGN2 – that were responsible for directing the differentiation of serotonin-releasing neurons from the skin cells.” MORE

Image Credit: Krishna Vadodaria/Salk Institute and MedicalNewsToday.com