In terms of immunohistochemical assessment, the most commonly used markers are synaptophysin, Chromogranin and CD56, but other recently introduced markers such as ASH1 and
NKX2.2 can be used.
One study showed that neuron-like cells were obtained from hADSCs by activating Shh, RA, and MAPK/ERK signaling and the neuron-like cells expressed the
Nkx2.2, Pax6, Hb9, and Olig2 gene [130].
Anderson, "The bHLH transcription factor Olig2 promotes oligodendrocyte differentiation in collaboration with
Nkx2.2," Neuron, vol.
(72) A recent study (73) has demonstrated that
NKX2.2, a homeodomain-containing transcription factor that plays a critical role in neuroendocrine/glial differentiation, is a target of EWSR1-FLI1, a valuable marker for Ewing sarcoma, with a sensitivity of 93% and a specificity of 89%.
The combination of CD99 and
NKX2.2, a transcriptional target of EWSR1-FLI1, is highly specific for the diagnosis of Ewing sarcoma.
demonstrated that short PROG treatment increased the number of OPC, increased the expression of MBP, and enhanced the expression of the Olig2 and
Nkx2.2 transcription factors involved in specification and differentiation of the oligodendrocyte lineage.
At E13, a wave of basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, Ngn3, expression in trunk epithelium leads to the differentiation of endocrine cell expansion between E13 and E15 by triggering the expression of several transcription factors including
Nkx2.2, Neurod1, Nkx6.1, Pax4, Pax6, and Isl1, which control endocrine cell differentiation.
Expression profiling of EWS/FLI identifies
NKX2.2 as a critical target gene in Ewing's sarcoma.
For example, in pluripotent embryonic stem cells (which can differentiate into any cell type) the neural precursor genes Dlx2, Handl, Msx2, Nestin, Nkx2.1,
Nkx2.2, Olig2, Pax6, and Sox1 all are bivalently marked, whereas in multipotent, neural precursor cells (which only can develop further into different types of neurons) only Dlx2 and Pax6 maintain this conformation.
A further set should include conserved neural-patterning genes (for example, otx, gbx, pax6; see Wilson and Houart, 2004) and neural-cell-type-specific genes (e.g., atonal, neuroD, neurogenin, genes for enzymes of GABA and serotonin synthesis), muscle-specific genes (for example, myoD, myosin light chain), and genes associated with chordate-distinctive traits such as the notochord (for example, bra, xnot, chordin), the dorsal hollow nerve cord (
nkx2.2, gsx, nkx6.1, msx, emx, otx, vax), gill slits (paxl/9, sixl, casr), post-anal tail (hoxlO-13), left-right asymmetry (nodal, vgl, lefty), pituitary (pitx, pome, pit), heart (nkx2.5), kidney (tcf2l, nephrin), thyroid (ttfl, ttf2), and Spemann's organizer (chordin, noggin, dkkl/2; see Weinstein and Hemmati-Brivanlou, 1999; De Robertis, 2006).
A new nuclear marker,
NKX2.2, has been demonstrated to be a more specific marker for Ewing sarcoma.