Topic
Neurosphere
About: Neurosphere is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5145 publications have been published within this topic receiving 321088 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
More filters
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that neural stem cells are mostly dorsally located GFAP+ cells lying ependymally and subependymally that extend radial processes toward the pial surface, and that ZEB1 is essential for neural stem cell survival in vitro.
Abstract: In humans and rodents the adult spinal cord harbors neural stem cells located around the central canal. Their identity, precise location, and specific signaling are still ill-defined and controversial. We report here on a detailed analysis of this niche. Using microdissection and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic mice, we demonstrate that neural stem cells are mostly dorsally located GFAP+ cells lying ependymally and subependymally that extend radial processes toward the pial surface. The niche also harbors doublecortin protein (Dcx)+ Nkx6.1+ neurons sending processes into the lumen. Cervical and lumbar spinal cord neural stem cells maintain expression of specific rostro-caudal Hox gene combinations and the niche shows high levels of signaling proteins (CD15, Jagged1, Hes1, differential screening-selected gene aberrative in neuroblastoma [DAN]). More surprisingly, the niche displays mesenchymal traits such as expression of epithelial-mesenchymal-transition zinc finger E-box-binding protein 1 (ZEB1) transcription factor and smooth muscle actin. We found ZEB1 to be essential for neural stem cell survival in vitro. Proliferation within the niche progressively ceases around 13 weeks when the spinal cord reaches its final size, suggesting an active role in postnatal development. In addition to hippocampus and subventricular zone niches, adult spinal cord constitutes a third central nervous system stem cell niche with specific signaling, cellular, and structural characteristics that could possibly be manipulated to alleviate spinal cord traumatic and degenerative diseases. STEM CELLS 2009;27:2722–2733
102 citations
TL;DR: This video practically demonstrates NSA to generate and expand NSCs from embryonic day 14-mouse brain tissue and provides technical details so one can achieve reproducible neurosphere cultures.
Abstract: In mammalians, stem cells acts as a source of undifferentiated cells to maintain cell genesis and renewal in different tissues and organs during the life span of the animal. They can potentially replace cells that are lost in the aging process or in the process of injury and disease. The existence of neural stem cells (NSCs) was first described by Reynolds and Weiss (1992) in the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) using a novel serum‐free culture system, the neurosphere assay (NSA). Using this assay, it is also feasible to isolate and expand NSCs from different regions of the embryonic CNS. These in vitro expanded NSCs are multipotent and can give rise to the three major cell types of the CNS. While the NSA seems relatively simple to perform, attention to the procedures demonstrated here is required in order to achieve reliable and consistent results. This video practically demonstrates NSA to generate and expand NSCs from embryonic day 14-mouse brain tissue and provides technical details so one can achieve reproducible neurosphere cultures. The procedure includes harvesting E14 mouse embryos, brain microdissection to harvest the ganglionic eminences, dissociation of the harvested tissue in NSC medium to gain a single cell suspension, and finally plating cells in NSA culture. After 5-7 days in culture, the resulting primary neurospheres are passaged to further expand the number of the NSCs for future experiments.
102 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that the small HLH protein Id3 is a Myc target that plays an essential role in the formation and maintenance of neural crest stem cells, and a morpholino-mediated `knockdown' of Id3 protein results in embryos that lack neural crest.
Abstract: Neural crest cells, a population of proliferative, migratory, tissue-invasive stem cells, are a defining feature of vertebrate embryos. These cells arise at the neural plate border during a time in development when precursors of the central nervous system and the epidermis are responding to the extracellular signals that will ultimately dictate their fates. Neural crest progenitors, by contrast, must be maintained in a multipotent state until after neural tube closure. Although the molecular mechanisms governing this process have yet to be fully elucidated, recent work has suggested that Myc functions to prevent premature cell fate decisions in neural crest forming regions of the early ectoderm. Here, we show that the small HLH protein Id3 is a Myc target that plays an essential role in the formation and maintenance of neural crest stem cells. A morpholino-mediated 'knockdown' of Id3 protein results in embryos that lack neural crest. Moreover, forced expression of Id3 maintains the expression of markers of the neural crest progenitor state beyond the time when they would normally be downregulated and blocks the differentiation of neural crest derivatives. These results shed new light on the mechanisms governing the formation and maintenance of a developmentally and clinically important cell population.
102 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that rat MSCs can be induced to neurospheres and most cells are positive for nestin, which is an early marker of neuronal progenitors, and large numbers of neuronal and glial phenotypes are obtained.
102 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that rat fetal hippocampus-derived neurosphere cells could survive, differentiate, extensively migrate, and integrate well into the host spinal cord tissue.
102 citations