Poster #027
LATS Inhibition Enhances NSC Expansion and Thalamic Engraftment
Mentors: Nicole Womack; Irving Weissman, M.D.
Neural stem cells (NSCs) hold great promise in regenerative medicine due to their potential to repair neurodegeneration. However, adult NSCs are rare in humans and are challenging to study because of their limited ability to expand in vitro. The Hippo signaling pathway, which restricts cell proliferation, represents a potential target for manipulating NSC growth. We hypothesized that chemically inhibiting LATS, a core kinase, could enhance proliferation while preserving stemness, using fetal NSCs as a model. Treatment with a LATS inhibitor in vitro led to increased NSC proliferation and reduced differentiation. To assess differentiation in vivo, LATS-inhibited NSCs were previously transplanted into the brains of neonatal mice, and after four months we observed significantly greater engraftment and thalamic tropism compared to untreated controls. These findings highlight a potential method to culture adult NSCs for research, as well as provide insights into a possible therapeutic treatment for thalamus-related diseases.