Astrocyte Reprogramming Kit (DFICBY)

The components of this kit can be mixed to produce the small molecule cocktail DFICBY. When mixed with appropriate cell culture media, DFICBY promotes reprogramming of astrocytes into neuronal cells with high conversion efficiency. Forskolin is a cyclic AMP (cAMP) agonist, bucladesine and ISX-9 are promoters of neural stem cell differentiation, CHIR99021 is an inhibitor of glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3) that regulates Wnt/beta-catenin signaling, I-BET151 is a bromodomain inhibitor that disrupts fibroblast-specific programming, and Y-27632 is an inhibitor of Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) that increases reprogramming efficiency. This optimized small molecule cocktail demonstrated improved performance over the previously developed FICBY cocktail for astrocyte reprogramming. DFICBY disrupts fibroblast-specific programming, activates endogenous expression of neuronal-specific genes, and converts astrocytes to functional neuronal cells., , Each component in this kit is provided separately, and instructions are included to reconstitute these reagents for direct dilution into cell culture media. The kit is intended to supplement up to 1 L of culture media when following the supplied instructions. Some reagents may be provided in excess and may be properly disposed of after cell media preparation. Prior to use, reagents must be stored as indicated at -20°C.