The intracellular signaling controlling neural stem/progenitor cell (NSC) self-renewal and neuronal/glial differentiation is not fully understood. We show here that Shp2, an introcellular tyrosine phosphatase with two SH2 domains, plays a critical role in NSC activities. Conditional deletion of Shp2 in neural progenitor cells mediated by Nestin-Cre resulted in early postnatal lethality, impaire...

The maintenance of pluripotency and specification of cellular lineages during embryonic development are controlled by transcriptional regulatory networks, which coordinate specific sets of genes through both activation and repression. The transcriptional repressor RE1-silencing transcription factor (REST) plays important but distinct regulatory roles in embryonic (ESC) and neural (NSC) stem cel...

Chronic alcohol abuse results in alcohol-related neurodegeneration, and critical gaps in our knowledge hinder therapeutic development. Neural stem cells (NSCs) are a subpopulation of cells within the adult brain that contribute to brain maintenance and recovery. While it is known that alcohol alters NSCs, little is known about how NSC response to alcohol is related to sex, brain region, and sta...

objective: the neural crest is a transient structure of early vertebrate embryos that generates neural crest cells (nccs). these cells can migrate throughout the body and produce a diverse array of mature tissue types. due to the ethical and technical problems surrounding the isolation of these early human embryo cells, researchers have focused on in vitro studies to produce nccs and increase t...

In recent years, it has become evident that the adult mammalian CNS contains a population of neural stem cells (NSCs) described as immature, undifferentiated, multipotent cells, that may be called upon for repair in neurodegenerative and demyelinating diseases. NSCs may give rise to oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) and other myelinating cells. This article reviews recent progress in eluc...

F a c u l t y M e n t o r Jasmin Tanaja, recognizing the importance of advancements in stem cell research, began work on her own project in Professor LaFerla’s lab. Her study is the first to show that stem cells can help improve cognitive performance after a focal brain lesion targeted specifically to a neuronal subpopulation. She describes her research experience to be one of “uncovering anoth...

The spatiotemporal control of proliferation and differentiation in neural stem cells (NSCs) is essential to produce a functional nervous system (NS). Stem cells in different areas and at different time points during development have to produce different types of cells in a precise manner. Recent studies uncovered a plethora of cell extrinsic as well as intrinsic factors that play crucial roles ...

introduction: adult stem cells are the group of cells which conserve their nature in tissues and organs among other cells. in recent years, the researchers reported the existence of stem cells on the bulge of hair follicles near to the smooth muscle. it is possible to differentiate these stem cells to neural cells by induction of shh, fgf, and ra factors. because of existence of these factors i...

Neural stem cells (NSCs) have mainly been applied to neurodegeneration in some medically intractable neurologic diseases. In this study, we established a novel NSC line and investigated the cytotoxic responses of NSCs to exogenous neurotoxicants, glutamates and reactive oxygen species (ROS). A multipotent NSC line, B2A1 cells, was established from long-term primary cultures of oligodendrocyte-e...