Differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells to the neural crest lineage

Neural crest (NC) cells are highly migratory and multipotent embryonic cells that contribute to a multitude of tissues throughout the body. Defects of the neural crest cause a range of developmental diseases designated as neurocristopathies. Neurocristopathies have historically been studied using animal models such as frog, chicken, or mouse. While these models share many of the same signaling events as humans, they cannot completely recapitulate human physiology, underlining the need for comparison with disease-relevant human cells. The development of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are embryonic stem cell-like cells reprogrammed from somatic cells, has allowed deeper understanding of NC development and neurocristopathies. In this chapter, we review the recent advances in strategies for NC derivation from iPSCs, while highlighting the need for protocols focusing on specific NC subpopulations. We also focus on the importance of patient-derived hiPSCs for use in in vitro platforms and discuss prospects for hiPSC-specific disease modeling of neurocristopathies.