Neural stem cells reside in a specialized vascular microenvironment that is termed “neural stem cell niche”, Brain vessels are the most important element in the NSC niche and paly an important role in balancing NSC’s maintenance and differentiation in order to maintain tissue homeostasis. In this study, we developed reconstituted 3D in vitro neural stem cell-vascular niche that consists of extr...

Analysis of domestic and overseas literature on the relationship between Alzheimer disease (AD) and neural stem cells (NSC) shows that inducing the proliferation and differentiation of hippocampal endogenous NSC in-situ by acupuncture is probably the mechanism of acupuncture therapy in treating AD, and that it may further improve the method for the research on AD.

1. The embryonic neural stem cell (NSC) microenvironment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1. The VZ microenvironment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.2. Signalling in the embryonic NSC microenvironment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

Stem cells often divide asymmetrically to produce one stem cell and one differentiating cell, thus maintaining the stem cell pool. Although neural stem cells (NSCs) in the adult mouse subventricular zone have been suggested to divide asymmetrically, intrinsic cell fate determinants for asymmetric NSC division are largely unknown. Stem cell niches are important for stem cell maintenance, but the...

BACKGROUND There are no cures or efficacious treatments for severe motor neuron diseases. It is extremely difficult to obtain naïve spinal motor neurons (sMNs) from human tissues for research due to both technical and ethical reasons. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are alternative sources. Several methods for MN differentiation have been reported. However, efficient production of naïve sMNs...

Neural stem cells (NSCs) can be derived from single mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in the absence of instructive factors. Clonal primitive NSC (pNSC) colonies are formed first, and then give rise to clonal, fibroblast growth factor-dependent definitive neural stem cells (dNSCs). We tested low-oxygen culture as a potential method of alleviating the extensive cell death seen in pNSCs and dNSCs...

BACKGROUND AIMS Neural stem cells (NSC) derived from bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) (BMSC-D-NSC) are remarkably versatile in response to environmental signals, which render them useful in the search for neurodegenerative disease treatments. METHODS We isolated NSC from rhesus monkey bone marrow (BM), transfected them with the human tyrosine hydroxylase (hTH) gene, and transplanted them into...

Oligodendrocytes, the cells responsible for myelin formation and maintenance in CNS, are depleted in many acute and chronic conditions. The stem/progenitor cells stimulation or transplantation might be seriously considered as a long hoped for therapeutic perspective. Better understanding of the mechanism(s) regulating the activation of the cell lineage from the endogenous progenitor reservoir m...

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are self-renewing multipotent cells that generate the main phenotypes of the nervous system, neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. As such they hold the promise to treat a broad range of neurological diseases and injuries. Neural progenitor and stem cells have been isolated and characterized in vitro, from adult, fetal and post-mortem tissues, providing sources of m...

Stem cell function is regulated by intrinsic as well as microenvironmental factors, including chemical and mechanical signals. Conducting polymer-based cell culture substrates provide a powerful tool to control both chemical and physical stimuli sensed by stem cells. Here we show that polypyrrole (PPy), a commonly used conducting polymer, can be tailored to modulate survival and maintenance of ...