Citations : Functional Neural Development from Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Accelerated Synaptic Activity via Astrocyte Coculture

How a naive human neuroepithelial cell becomes an electrophysiologically active neuron remains unknown. Here, we describe the early physiological development of neurons differentiating from naive human embryonic stem (hES) cells. We found that differentiating neuronal cells progressively decrease their resting membrane potential, gain characteristic Na⁺ and K⁺ currents, and fire mature action potentials by 7 weeks of differentiation.