Human pluripotent stem cell-derived neuroepithelial cells develop into an organizer for optic tectum formation in the chicken diencephalon.

Overview

Authors: Meghdad Yeganeh^1,2, Mostafa Najar-Asl¹, Razieh Karamzadeh¹, Shiva Nemati¹, Saeed Yakhkeshi^1,3, Azimeh Akhlaghpour¹, Stefan Guenther⁴, Somayeh Naderi¹, Ebrahim Shahbazi¹, Sepideh Mollamohammadi¹, Susan Simorgh¹, Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani¹, Amir Shojaei⁵, Javad Mirnajafizadeh⁵, Mohammad-Reza Abolghasemi Dehaqani^6,7, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi⁶, Ruijin Huang⁸, Koorosh Shahpasand^1,7, Shin-Ichi Hisanaga^9,10, Thomas Braun⁴, Hossein Baharvand^1,11

Institutions: Royan Institute (Iran); University of Tehran (Iran); Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (Iran); Agricultural Research & Education Organization (Iran); Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (Iran); Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research (Germany); Tarbiat Modares University (Iran); University of Bonn (Germany); Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science (Japan); Tokyo Metropolitan University (Japan); University of Science and Culture (Iran)

Journal: Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, volume 14, article 1812038

Dates: received 16 February 2026; accepted 11 May 2026; published online 1 June 2026

Type: Research article · Language: English

License: CC BY

Identifiers: DOI 10.3389/fcell.2026.1812038 · PMID 42306305 · PMCID PMC13265535 · OpenAlex W7162995705

Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)

Status: data only

Categories: human (organism), cellular / molecular (subfield)

Methods: Statistics, Evoked potentials

Keywords: brain development, isthmic organizer, neuroepithelial cells, optic tectum, pluripotent stem cells

Topic: Pluripotent Stem Cells Research (Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology), according to OpenAlex

Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 82 references in the paper

Abstract

Human brain development critically depends on the formation of secondary organizers, which determine specification of neural territories along the antero-posterior axis. Studies on human secondary organizers have proven to be difficult due to technical limitations and ethical concerns. Here, using interspecies transplantations we demonstrate that neuroepithelial cells (NECs) derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) acquire properties of the isthmic organizer (IsO) when transplanted into the HH11 chicken anterior diencephalon, driving formation of a fully laminated optic tectum. hPSCs-derived NECs initially do not express the whole range of characteristic IsO molecules, but develop these features after transplantation and interaction within host tissue. We show that engineered human NECs act as dominant IsOs, overriding local signals in the chicken diencephalon to form a mesencephalic architecture, the optic tectum. The generation of IsOs from hPSCs offers new opportunities to study the pathogenesis of brain defects caused by malfunctions of the IsO.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

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Data

Datasets cited

geo:GSE235580 — at NCBI GEO; found in “Data availability statement”

Data availability statement

The RNA-seq data in this study have been submitted to the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo) under the accession number GSE235580 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE235580).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 21 authors, 5 keywords, 81 references.

Cite

This paper

Yeganeh, M., Najar-Asl, M., Karamzadeh, R., Nemati, S., Yakhkeshi, S., Akhlaghpour, A., Guenther, S., Naderi, S., Shahbazi, E., Mollamohammadi, S., Simorgh, S., Hassani, S.-N., Shojaei, A., Mirnajafizadeh, J., Abolghasemi Dehaqani, M.-R., Ahmadabadi, M. N., Huang, R., Shahpasand, K., Hisanaga, S.-I., . . . Baharvand, H. (2026). Human pluripotent stem cell-derived neuroepithelial cells develop into an organizer for optic tectum formation in the chicken diencephalon. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 14, 1812038. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2026.1812038

BibTeX

@article{yeganeh2026human, author = {Yeganeh, Meghdad and Najar-Asl, Mostafa and Karamzadeh, Razieh and Nemati, Shiva and Yakhkeshi, Saeed and Akhlaghpour, Azimeh and Guenther, Stefan and Naderi, Somayeh and Shahbazi, Ebrahim and Mollamohammadi, Sepideh and Simorgh, Susan and Hassani, Seyedeh-Nafiseh and Shojaei, Amir and Mirnajafizadeh, Javad and Abolghasemi Dehaqani, Mohammad-Reza and Ahmadabadi, Majid Nili and Huang, Ruijin and Shahpasand, Koorosh and Hisanaga, Shin-Ichi and Braun, Thomas and Baharvand, Hossein}, title = {{Human pluripotent stem cell-derived neuroepithelial cells develop into an organizer for optic tectum formation in the chicken diencephalon}}, journal = {Frontiers in cell and developmental biology}, year = {2026}, month = jun, volume = {14}, pages = {1812038}, publisher = {Frontiers Media SA}, issn = {2296-634X}, doi = {10.3389/fcell.2026.1812038}, url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2026.1812038}, pmid = {42306305}, pmcid = {PMC13265535} }

RIS

TY - JOUR AU - Yeganeh, Meghdad AU - Najar-Asl, Mostafa AU - Karamzadeh, Razieh AU - Nemati, Shiva AU - Yakhkeshi, Saeed AU - Akhlaghpour, Azimeh AU - Guenther, Stefan AU - Naderi, Somayeh AU - Shahbazi, Ebrahim AU - Mollamohammadi, Sepideh AU - Simorgh, Susan AU - Hassani, Seyedeh-Nafiseh AU - Shojaei, Amir AU - Mirnajafizadeh, Javad AU - Abolghasemi Dehaqani, Mohammad-Reza AU - Ahmadabadi, Majid Nili AU - Huang, Ruijin AU - Shahpasand, Koorosh AU - Hisanaga, Shin-Ichi AU - Braun, Thomas AU - Baharvand, Hossein TI - Human pluripotent stem cell-derived neuroepithelial cells develop into an organizer for optic tectum formation in the chicken diencephalon T2 - Frontiers in cell and developmental biology J2 - Front Cell Dev Biol PY - 2026 DA - 2026/06/01 VL - 14 SP - 1812038 SN - 2296-634X PB - Frontiers Media SA DO - 10.3389/fcell.2026.1812038 UR - https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2026.1812038 LA - en ER -

CSL-JSON

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