Neurogenesis does not stop abruptly at birth, but persists in specific brain regions throughout life. The neural stem cells (NSCs) located in the largest germinal region of the forebrain, the ventricularsubventricular zone (V-SVZ), replenish olfactory neurons throughout life. However, V-SVZ NSCs are heterogeneous: they have different embryonic origins and give rise to distinct neuronal subtypes...

The diffusible messenger NO plays multiple roles in neuroprotection, neurodegeneration, and brain plasticity. Argininosuccinate synthase (AS) is a ubiquitous enzyme in mammals and the key enzyme of the NO-citrulline cycle, because it provides the substrate L-arginine for subsequent NO synthesis by inducible, endothelial, and neuronal NO synthase (NOS). Here, we provide evidence for the particip...

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane particles involved in the exchange of a broad range of bioactive molecules between cells and the microenvironment. Although it has been shown that cells can traffic metabolic enzymes via EVs, much remains to be elucidated with regard to their intrinsic metabolic activity. Accordingly, herein we assessed the ability of neural stem/progenitor cell (NSC)-d...

Monkeys are much closer to human and are the most common nonhuman primates which are used in biomedical studies. Neural progenitor cells can originate from the hippocampus of adult monkeys. Despite a few reports, the detailed properties of monkey neural stem cells (NSCs) and their responses to cytokine are still unclear. Here, we derive NSCs from an adult monkey brain and demonstrate that BMP4 ...

OBJECTIVE The effects on neural proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells (NSC) of basic fibroblast growth factor-2 (bFGF), insulin growth factor-I (IGF-I), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and nerve growth factor (NGF) were assessed. Also, following combinations of various factors were investigated : bFGF+IGF-I, bFGF+BDNF, bFGF+NGF, IGF-I+BDNF, IGF-I+NGF, and BDNF+NGF. ...

Although evidence of damage-directed neural stem cell (NSC) migration has been well-documented in the rodent, to our knowledge it has never been confirmed or quantified using human NSC (hNSC) in an adult non-human primate modeling a human neurodegenerative disease state. In this report, we attempt to provide that confirmation, potentially advancing basic stem cell concepts toward clinical relev...

The olfactory bulb (OB) periventricular zone is an extension of the forebrain subventricular zone (SVZ) and thus is a source of neuroprogenitor cells and neural stem cells. While considerable information is available on the SVZ-OB neural stem cell (NSC)/neuroprogenitor cell (NPC) niche in rodents, less work has been done on this system in large animals. The newborn piglet is used as a preclinic...

The G-protein-coupled receptor 56 (GPR56) plays important roles in brain development and tumorigenesis. cDNA data suggest that GPR56 has potential to become a neural stem cell (NSC) or neural progenitor cell (NPC) marker. However, expression of GPR56 protein in human NSC/NPCs was not explored. Using specific antibodies and immunochemistry, we showed that GPR56 was highly expressed in nestin-pos...

In 2011, Remboutsika et al. (2011) published an elegant paper in which they demonstrated the unique importance of Sox2 in self-renewal of neural stem cells (NSC) in vitro and in vivo. They demonstrated that Sox2 helps maintain the cortical identity of NSC ex vivo as evidenced by the expression of Pax6 and the nestinlinked epitope RC2. Only the Sox2+ cells isolated from Soxβ−geo/+ neurospheres w...

Multipotent neural stem cells (NSCs) possess the ability to self-renew and differentiate into both neurons and glia. However, the detailed mechanisms underlying NSC fate decisions are not well understood. Recent work suggests that the interaction between cell type specific transcription factors and microRNAs (miRNAs) is important as resident neural stem/progenitor cells give rise to functionall...