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Neurosphere
About: Neurosphere is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5145 publications have been published within this topic receiving 321088 citations.
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TL;DR: It is found that cells capable of long-term reconstitution of a squamous epithelium reside in the interfollicular epidermis, and a novel functional assay is established that can be used to validate immunophenotypic markers and enrichment strategies for epidermal stem cells, and to quantify epider mal stem cells in various keratinocyte populations.
Abstract: Epidermal stem cells play a central role in tissue homeostasis, wound repair, tumor initiation, and gene therapy. A major impediment to the purification and molecular characterization of epidermal stem cells is the lack of a quantitative assay for cells capable of long-term repopulation in vivo, such as exists for hematopoietic cells. The tremendous strides made in the characterization and purification of hematopoietic stem cells have been critically dependent on the availability of competitive transplantation assays, because these assays permit the accurate quantitation of long-term repopulating cells in vivo. We have developed an analogous functional assay for epidermal stem cells, and have measured the frequency of functional epidermal stem cells in interfollicular epidermis. These studies indicate that cells capable of long-term reconstitution of a squamous epithelium reside in the interfollicular epidermis. We find that the frequency of these long-term repopulating cells is 1 in 35,000 total epidermal cells, or in the order of 1 in 104 basal epidermal cells, similar to that of hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow, and much lower than previously estimated in epidermis. Furthermore, these studies establish a novel functional assay that can be used to validate immunophenotypic markers and enrichment strategies for epidermal stem cells, and to quantify epidermal stem cells in various keratinocyte populations. Thus further studies using this type of assay for epidermis should aid in the progress of cutaneous stem cell-targeted gene therapy, and in more basic studies of epidermal stem cell regulation and differentiation.
76 citations
TL;DR: A fluorescence‐activated cell sorting (FACS) technique is developed and described that enables the purification of a discrete subpopulation of SP‐supporting cells from the early postnatal mouse cochlea based on their ability to exclude Hoechst dye.
Abstract: In mammals, the permanence of hearing loss is due mostly to the incapacity of the cochlea to replace lost mechano-receptor cells (i.e., hair cells [HCs]). The generation of new HCs from a renewable source of progenitors is a principal requirement for developing a cell therapy within this sensory organ. A subset of stem cells, termed side population (SP), has been identified in several tissues of mammals. The ATP-binding cassette transporter Abcg2/Bcrp1 contributes to the specification of the SP phenotype and is proposed as a universal marker for stem/progenitor cells. A defining character of these SP cells is a high efflux capacity for Hoechst dye. Here, we demonstrate that Abcg2 transporter is expressed with two other stem/progenitor cell markers (i.e., Nestin and Musashi1) in distinct and overlapping domains of the supporting cells within the postnatal cochlea. We have developed and describe a fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) technique that enables the purification of a discrete subpopulation of SP-supporting cells from the early postnatal mouse cochlea based on their ability to exclude Hoechst dye. These FACS-isolated cells can divide and express markers of stem/progenitor cells such as Abcg2, a determinant of the SP phenotype, and Musashi1, a neural stem/progenitor cell marker. These markers can differentiate cells expressing markers of HCs and supporting cells in vitro. Our observation that these SP cells are capable of differentiating into HC-like cells implies a possible use for such cells (i.e., the replacement of lost auditory HCs within damaged cochlea).
76 citations
TL;DR: Elevated EPOR expression on GSCs promotes tumor growth and may explain the poor survival of cancer patients treated with EPO, and it is found that STAT3 is an important mediator of EPOR signals in G SCs.
Abstract: Recombinant erythropoietin (EPO) is a growth factor used in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced anemia, but recent studies suggest that EPO may accelerate cancer growth. Although several cancers express EPO receptors (EPORs), the mechanism by which EPOR promotes tumor growth remains poorly understood. Glioblastomas display a cellular hierarchy of self-renewal and tumor propagation restricted to glioma stem cells (GSCs). The authors find that GSCs express higher levels of EPOR than matched nonstem glioma cells. Prospective enrichment for EPOR on GSCs increased neurosphere formation, suggesting that EPOR can select for a subset of GSCs with increased self-renewal capacity. Targeting EPOR expression with lentiviral-mediated short-hairpin RNA (shRNA) reduced GSC growth, survival, and neurosphere formation capacity, defining a crucial role for EPOR in GSC maintenance. The authors further find that STAT3 is an important mediator of EPOR signals in GSCs. EPOR knockdown attenuated the basal activation of STAT3 present in GSCs, and a small-molecule inhibitor of STAT3 reduced GSC growth and survival. EPOR signaling was critical for survival in vivo, as targeting EPOR expression decreased GSC tumorigenic potential. Elevated EPOR expression is also associated with poor patient outcome. Thus, EPOR on GSCs promotes tumor growth and may explain the poor survival of cancer patients treated with EPO.
76 citations
TL;DR: A comparative analysis of the distribution and frequency of NSCs and progenitor cells detected in 400 μm coronal segments along the ventricular neuraxis of the adult mouse brain using the neurosphere assay, the neural colony forming cell assay (N‐CFCA), and label‐retaining cell (LRC) approach suggests caution should be taken with the interpretation and employment of all these techniques.
Abstract: The neurosphere assay can detect and expand neural stem cells (NSCs) and progenitor cells, but it cannot discriminate between these two populations Given two assays have purported to overcome this shortfall, we performed a comparative analysis of the distribution and frequency of NSCs and progenitor cells detected in 400 mum coronal segments along the ventricular neuraxis of the adult mouse brain using the neurosphere assay, the neural colony forming cell assay (N-CFCA), and label-retaining cell (LRC) approach We observed a large variation in the number of progenitor/stem cells detected in serial sections along the neuraxis, with the number of neurosphere-forming cells detected in individual 400 mum sections varying from a minimum of eight to a maximum of 891 depending upon the rostral-caudal coordinate assayed Moreover, the greatest variability occurred in the rostral portion of the lateral ventricles, thereby explaining the large variation in neurosphere frequency previously reported Whereas the overall number of neurospheres (3730 +/- 276) or colonies (4275 +/- 124) we detected along the neuraxis did not differ significantly, LRC numbers were significantly reduced (1186 +/- 188, 7 month chase) in comparison to both total colonies and neurospheres Moreover, approximately two orders of magnitude fewer NSC-derived colonies (50 +/- 10) were detected using the N-CFCA as compared to LRCs Given only 5% of the LRCs are cycling (BrdU+/Ki-67+) or competent to divide (BrdU+/Mcm-2+), and proliferate upon transfer to culture, it is unclear whether this technique selectively detects endogenous NSCs Overall, caution should be taken with the interpretation and employment of all these techniques
76 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the expression of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and II molecules, but not the co-stimulatory proteins CD40, CD80 and CD86, substantially increase during expansion of neurospheres, suggesting a low immunogenicity of these cultured human neural cells.
76 citations