Dehydroepiandrosterone stimulates neurogenesis in mouse embryonal carcinoma cell- and human embryonic stem cell-derived neural progenitors and induces dopaminergic neurons.

To evaluate the effect of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) as a neurosteroid on the rate of neurogenesis, neural survival, and proliferation of pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons, we have added DHEA to mouse P19 embryonal carcinoma cell-and human embryonic stem cell-derived neural progenitors (ECC- and ESC-NPs). In ECC-derived NPs, flow cytometric analysis of nestin and Tuj1-positive cells revealed that the percentages of these cells increased significantly for the markers following DHEA treatment of the cells. Moreover, the percentages of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive cells, the marker of dopaminergic neurons, significantly increased in the presence of DHEA. The expression of neural-specific genes such as Mash1, Pax6, Tuj1, and TH was also detected by RT-PCR analysis. BrdU incorporation and estrogen receptor (EsR) were found to be increased after DHEA induction. Moreover, apoptosis was significantly decreased after DHEA treatment. DHEA effect was also confirmed on human ESC-NPs by the enhancement of Tuj1- and TH-immunofluorescent-positive cells and TH and Nurr1 transcripts, as detected by quantitative RT-PCR. In conclusion, these results have presented evidence that DHEA was able to induce neurogenesis in mouse ECC and human ESC-NPs. This observation was related to the division of NPs and the reduction of apoptosis. Moreover, DHEA has dopaminergic potential in the cells of both orders. This provides a better insight into the differentiation and maintenance of neural cells and treatment of a wide variety of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's by stem cells.