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Figure 3. Schematic drawing for the in vitro generation of functional DA neurons from cultured neural precursor cells. Transgene expression of Nurr1 (N) sufficiently induces DA phenotype expression in embryonic cortical precursor cells. Coexpression of SHH (H)+Bcl-XL (B) or Mash1 (M) drives Nurr1-expressing precursors to differentiate into morphologically and functionally mature DA neurons. The combinatorial genetic manipulation of Nurr1-SHH-Bcl-XL (NHB) or Nurr1-Mash1 (NM), therefore, provides an efficient strategy to generate midbrain DA neurons exhibiting in vitro and in vivo functions in PD rats.
