UNLABELLED Non-neuronal cells of the central nervous system (CNS), termed "neuroglia," play critical roles in neural regeneration; therefore, replacement of glial populations via implantable nanofabricated devices (providing a growth-permissive niche) is a promising strategy to enhance repair. Most constructs developed to date have lacked three-dimensionality, multiple glial populations and con...

Prolactin is a pleiotropic peptide hormone and cytokine that is secreted from the pituitary gland and locally within various tissues of the body for autocrine and paracrine signal transduction. It controls proliferation and differentiation in a number of body tissues and increasing evidence indicates that it controls these functions in undifferentiated stem and progenitor cells of adult tissues...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that causes severe motor, sensory, and cognitive impairments. Kallikrein-related peptidase (KLK)6 most abundant serine protease secreted in CNS, mainly by oligodendrocytes, myelin-producing cells KLK6 assumed to be a robust biomarker MS, since it highly increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) MS patie...

Sulfatide is a myelin glycolipid that functions in the formation of paranodal axo-glial junctions in vivo and in the regulation of oligodendrocyte differentiation in vitro. Cerebroside sulfotransferase (CST) catalyzes the production of two sulfated glycolipids, sulfatide and proligodendroblast antigen, in oligodendrocyte lineage cells. Recent studies have demonstrated significant increases in o...

We showed previously that oligodendrocytes and their precursors require continuous signalling by protein trophic factors to avoid programmed cell death in culture. Here we show that three classes of such trophic factors promote oligodendrocyte survival in vitro: (1) insulin and insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), (2) neurotrophins, particularly neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), and (3) ciliary-neurotrophi...