The functional significance of adult neural stem and progenitor cells in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory has been well documented. Although adult neural stem and progenitor cells in the subventricular zone are known to migrate to, maintain and reorganize the olfactory bulb, it is less clear whether they are functionally required for other processes. Using a conditional transgenic mous...

Introduction: To address the question whether combination of methylprednisolone (MP) as an anti-inflammatory drug used in neurodegenerative diseases and neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs) is safe, the present study was designed. Methods: Embryonic rat NS/PCs were exposed to different concentrations of MP and survival by MTT assay, proliferation by analyzing the number and diameter of neuro...

Cerebral ischemia induces neurogenesis, including proliferation and differentiation of neural progenitor cells and migration of newly generated neuroblasts. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that decrease gene expression through mRNA destabilization and/or translational repression. Emerging data indicate that miRNAs have a role in mediating processes of proliferation and differentiati...

The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors Ascl1/Mash1, Hes1, and Olig2 regulate fate choice of neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes, respectively. These same factors are coexpressed by neural progenitor cells. Here, we found by time-lapse imaging that these factors are expressed in an oscillatory manner by mouse neural progenitor cells. In each differentiation lineage, one of the fa...

Post-mitotic neurons are generated from neural progenitor cells (NPCs) at the expense of their proliferation. Molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate neuron production temporally and spatially should impact on the size and shape of the brain. While transcription factors such as neurogenin1 (neurog1) and neurod govern progression of neurogenesis as cell-intrinsic mechanisms, recent studi...

Recent studies have substantially expanded our conception of the roles for glia in function and maintenance of the adult nervous system. Of these reports, several have re-examined the lineage relationships among neural stem cells, their early radial glial derivatives and their mitotically competent neurogenic daughters. These studies have highlighted the role of radial cells in development, and...

OBJECTIVE Individuals with the neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) cancer predisposition syndrome develop spinal cord glial tumors (ependymomas) that likely originate from neural progenitor cells. Whereas many spinal ependymomas exhibit indolent behavior, the only treatment option for clinically symptomatic tumors is surgery. In this regard, medical therapies are unfortunately lacking due to an inco...

Stroke is one of the leading causes of chronic disability and death in the Western world. Today, no treatment can repair the cellular loss associated with an ischemic lesion. However, the discovery and dynamic regulation of neural stem/progenitor cells in the adult mammalian brain has resulted in exciting possibilities for future therapeutic interventions. Endogenous or grafted neural stem/prog...

The proapoptotic Bcl-2 family members Bak and Bax play central and redundant roles in the regulation of apoptosis. In this study, we investigated the effect of loss of Bax and Bak in the CNS. The adult bax-/-bak-/- mice display masses of densely staining cells in the proliferative zones of the brain. These cells are shown to be a mix of neural progenitor cells and postmitotic cells at different...