Dorsally-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells from human pluripotent stem cells

A method for obtaining a differentiated population of cells comprising:

• a) providing a culture of undifferentiated human pluripotent stem cells;
• b) culturing the undifferentiated human pluripotent stem cells adherently in the presence of at least one inhibitor of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MAPK/ERK), at least one inhibitor of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling and retinoic acid for a first time period, thereby inducing differentiation to neuroectoderm;
• c) culturing the cells from b) adherently in the presence of retinoic acid and in the absence of sonic hedgehog (SHH) or a SHH signaling activator for a second time period, thereby obtaining dorsal neural progenitor cells;
• and
• d) harvesting the cells from c), replating them on a substrate and culturing the cells adherently in the presence of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF) for a further time period, thereby expanding the dorsal neural progenitor cells.