We found adult human stem cells that can generate, from a single cell, cells with the characteristics of the three germ layers. The cells are stress-tolerant and can be isolated from cultured skin fibroblasts or bone marrow stromal cells, or directly from bone marrow aspirates. These cells can self-renew; form characteristic cell clusters in suspension culture that express a set of genes associated with pluripotency; and can differentiate into endodermal, ectodermal, and mesodermal cells both in vitro and in vivo. When transplanted into immunodeficient mice by local or i.v. injection, the cells integrated into damaged skin, muscle, or liver and differentiated into cytokeratin 14-, dystrophin-, or albumin-positive cells in the respective tissues. Furthermore, they can be efficiently isolated as SSEA-3(+) cells. Unlike authentic ES cells, their proliferation activity is not very high and they do not form teratomas in immunodeficient mouse testes. Thus, nontumorigenic stem cells with the ability to generate the multiple cell types of the three germ layers can be obtained through easily accessible adult human mesenchymal cells without introducing exogenous genes. These unique cells will be beneficial for cell-based therapy and biomedical research.

A fundamental issue in cortical processing of sensory information is whether top-down control circuits from higher brain areas to primary sensory areas not only modulate but actively engage in perception. Here, we report the identification of a neural circuit for top-down control in the mouse somatosensory system. The circuit consisted of a long-range reciprocal projection between M2 secondary motor cortex and S1 primary somatosensory cortex. In vivo physiological recordings revealed that sensory stimulation induced sequential S1 to M2 followed by M2 to S1 neural activity. The top-down projection from M2 to S1 initiated dendritic spikes and persistent firing of S1 layer 5 (L5) neurons. Optogenetic inhibition of M2 input to S1 decreased L5 firing and the accurate perception of tactile surfaces. These findings demonstrate that recurrent input to sensory areas is essential for accurate perception and provide a physiological model for one type of top-down control circuit.

Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is a neuropeptide produced in neurons sparsely distributed in the lateral hypothalamic area.Recent studies have reported that MCH neurons are active during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, but their physiological role in the regulation of sleep/wakefulness is not fully understood. To determine the physiological role of MCH neurons, newly developed transgenic mouse strains that enable manipulation of the activity and fate of MCH neurons in vivo were generated using the recently developed knockin-mediated enhanced gene expression by improved tetracycline-controlled gene induction system. The activity of these cells was controlled by optogenetics by expressing channelrhodopsin2 (E123T/T159C) or archaerhodopsin-T in MCH neurons. Acute optogenetic activation of MCH neurons at 10 Hz induced transitions from non-REM (NREM) to REM sleep and increased REM sleep time in conjunction with decreased NREM sleep. Activation of MCH neurons while mice were in NREM sleep induced REM sleep, but activation during wakefulness was ineffective. Acute optogenetic silencing of MCH neurons using archaerhodopsin-T had no effect on any vigilance states. Temporally controlled ablation of MCH neurons by cell-specific expression of diphtheria toxin A increased wakefulness and decreased NREM sleep duration without affecting REM sleep. Together, these results indicate that acute activation of MCH neurons is sufficient, but not necessary, to trigger the transition from NREM to REM sleep and that MCH neurons also play a role in the initiation and maintenance of NREM sleep.

Microbial opsins with a bound chromophore function as photosensitive ion transporters and have been employed in optogenetics for the optical control of neuronal activity. Molecular engineering has been utilized to create colour variants for the functional augmentation of optogenetics tools, but was limited by the complexity of the protein–chromophore interactions. Here we report the development of blue-shifted colour variants by rational design at atomic resolution, achieved through accurate hybrid molecular simulations, electrophysiology and X-ray crystallography. The molecular simulation models and the crystal structure reveal the precisely designed conformational changes of the chromophore induced by combinatory mutations that shrink its π-conjugated system which, together with electrostatic tuning, produce large blue shifts of the absorption spectra by maximally 100 nm, while maintaining photosensitive ion transport activities. The design principle we elaborate is applicable to other microbial opsins, and clarifies the underlying molecular mechanism of the blue-shifted action spectra of microbial opsins recently isolated from natural sources.

During tactile perception, long-range intracortical top-down axonal projections are essential for processing sensory information. Whether these projections regulate sleep-dependent long-term memory consolidation is unknown. We altered top-down inputs from higher-order cortex to sensory cortex during sleep and examined the consolidation of memories acquired earlier during awake texture perception. Mice learned novel textures and consolidated them during sleep. Within the first hour of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, optogenetic inhibition of top-down projecting axons from secondary motor cortex (M2) to primary somatosensory cortex (S1) impaired sleep-dependent reactivation of S1 neurons and memory consolidation. In NREM sleep and sleep-deprivation states, closed-loop asynchronous or synchronous M2-S1 coactivation, respectively, reduced or prolonged memory retention. Top-down cortical information flow in NREM sleep is thus required for perceptual memory consolidation.

The hypothalamus monitors body homeostasis and regulates various behaviors such as feeding, thermogenesis, and sleeping. Orexins (also known as hypocretins) were identified as endogenous ligands for two orphan G-protein-coupled receptors in the lateral hypothalamic area. They were initially recognized as regulators of feeding behavior, but they are mainly regarded as key modulators of the sleep/wakefulness cycle. Orexins activate orexin neurons, monoaminergic and cholinergic neurons in the hypothalamus/brainstem regions, to maintain a long, consolidated awake period. Anatomical studies of neural projections from/to orexin neurons and phenotypic characterization of transgenic mice revealed various roles for orexin neurons in the coordination of emotion, energy homeostasis, reward system, and arousal. For example, orexin neurons are regulated by peripheral metabolic cues, including ghrelin, leptin, and glucose concentration. This suggests that they may provide a link between energy homeostasis and arousal states. A link between the limbic system and orexin neurons might be important for increasing vigilance during emotional stimuli. Orexins are also involved in reward systems and the mechanisms of drug addiction. These findings suggest that orexin neurons sense the outer and inner environment of the body and maintain the proper wakefulness level of animals for survival. This review discusses the mechanism by which orexins maintain sleep/wakefulness states and how this mechanism relates to other systems that regulate emotion, reward, and energy homeostasis.

Orexin neurons in the hypothalamus regulate energy homeostasis by coordinating various physiological responses. Past studies have shown the role of the orexin peptide itself; however, orexin neurons contain not only orexin but also other neurotransmitters such as glutamate and dynorphin. In this study, we examined the physiological role of orexin neurons in feeding behavior and metabolism by pharmacogenetic activation and chronic ablation. We generated novel orexin-Cre mice and utilized Cre-dependent adeno-associated virus vectors to express Gq-coupled modified GPCR, hM3Dq or diphtheria toxin fragment A in orexin neurons. By intraperitoneal injection of clozapine-N oxide in orexin-Cre mice expressing hM3Dq in orexin neurons, we could selectively manipulate the activity of orexin neurons. Pharmacogenetic stimulation of orexin neurons simultaneously increased locomotive activity, food intake, water intake and the respiratory exchange ratio (RER). Elevation of blood glucose levels and RER persisted even after locomotion and feeding behaviors returned to basal levels. Accordantly, 83% ablation of orexin neurons resulted in decreased food and water intake, while 70% ablation had almost no effect on these parameters. Our results indicate that orexin neurons play an integral role in regulation of both feeding behavior and metabolism. This regulation is so robust that greater than 80% of orexin neurons were ablated before significant changes in feeding behavior emerged.

The changes in brain function that perpetuate opiate addiction are unclear. In our studies of human narcolepsy, a disease caused by loss of immunohistochemically detected hypocretin (orexin) neurons, we encountered a control brain (from an apparently neurologically normal individual) with 50% more hypocretin neurons than other control human brains that we had studied. We discovered that this individual was a heroin addict. Studying five postmortem brains from heroin addicts, we report that the brain tissue had, on average, 54% more immunohistochemically detected neurons producing hypocretin than did control brains from neurologically normal subjects. Similar increases in hypocretin-producing cells could be induced in wild-type mice by long-term (but not short-term) administration of morphine. The increased number of detected hypocretin neurons was not due to neurogenesis and outlasted morphine administration by several weeks. The number of neurons containing melanin-concentrating hormone, which are in the same hypothalamic region as hypocretin-producing cells, did not change in response to morphine administration. Morphine administration restored the population of detected hypocretin cells to normal numbers in transgenic mice in which these neurons had been partially depleted. Morphine administration also decreased cataplexy in mice made narcoleptic by the depletion of hypocretin neurons. These findings suggest that opiate agonists may have a role in the treatment of narcolepsy, a disorder caused by hypocretin neuron loss, and that increased numbers of hypocretin-producing cells may play a role in maintaining opiate addiction.