Characterization of the effect of human mutated huntingtin on the neuronal stem cell differentiation.

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by an expansion of the CAG codon repeat in the huntingtin gene (HTT). This expansion causes a change in the biochemical properties of the huntingtin protein (HTT), its aggregation and cellular toxicity, which leads to the degeneration of brain neurons, especially in the striatum. Induced pluripotent cells (iPSC) derived directly from HD patient cells can serve as a model system for in vitro modeling of this disease. Because neuronal dysfunctions occur in HD patients years before the first clinical symptoms manifest, this model system may help elucidate the mechanisms that precede the onset of the disease. The aim of this thesis was to differentiate iPSCs (derived from fibroblasts of HD patients and healthy controls) into neural stem cells (NSCs) and subsequently into neuronal cell populations and to monitor molecular changes in their differentiation associated with the effect of mutated HTT. The differentiation process was monitored based on selected markers using immunofluorescence, western blot and qRT-PCR. We were able to generate stable NSC lines derived from 3 control and 3 HD iPSC lines. All 6 NSC lines were able to further differentiate into neural populations. At the transcriptional level, we found a higher..