Neurosphere

About: Neurosphere is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5145 publications have been published within this topic receiving 321088 citations.

Simultaneous prospective purification of adult subventricular zone neural stem cells and their progeny.

Abstract: The ability to prospectively isolate adult neural stem cells and their progeny is crucial to study their biology and therapeutic potential. Stem cells in adult mammalian neurogenic niches are a subset of astrocytes. A major limitation in the field has been the inability to distinguish stem cell astrocytes from niche astrocytes. Here, we show that epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-positive subventricular-zone (SVZ) astrocytes are activated stem cells that are eliminated by antimitotic treatment. We developed a simple strategy to simultaneously purify cells at different stages of the adult SVZ stem cell lineage by using FACS. This method combines the use of fluorescent EGF ligand, CD24, and GFP expression in GFAP::GFP transgenic mice and allows the simultaneous purification of activated stem cell astrocytes (GFP(+)EGFR(+)CD24(-)), niche astrocytes (GFP(+)EGFR(-)CD24(-)), transit amplifying cells (GFP(-)EGFR(+)CD24(-)), and neuroblasts (GFP(-)EGFR(-)CD24(low)). One in three EGFR(+) astrocytes gives rise to neurospheres in vitro, a 20-fold enrichment over unsorted cells. Importantly, these cells constitute the neurosphere-forming population among SVZ astrocytes. This approach will be of great utility for future functional and molecular studies of the SVZ stem cell lineage.

Microglia instruct subventricular zone neurogenesis.

Abstract: Microglia are increasingly implicated as a source of non-neural regulation of postnatal neurogenesis and neuronal development. To evaluate better the contributions of microglia to neural stem cells (NSCs) of the subventricular neuraxis, we employed an adherent culture system that models the continuing proliferation and differentiation of the dissociated neuropoietic subventricular tissues. In this model, neuropoietic cells retain the ability to self-renew and form multipotent neurospheres, but progressively lose the ability to generate committed neuroblasts with continued culture. Neurogenesis in highly expanded NSCs can be rescued by coculture with microglial cells or microglia-conditioned medium, indicating that microglia provide secreted factor(s) essential for neurogenesis, but not NSC maintenance, self-renewal, or propagation. Our findings suggest an instructive role for microglial cells in contributing to postnatal neurogenesis in the largest neurogenic niche of the mammalian brain.

Stem cell plasticity revisited: CXCR4-positive cells expressing mRNA for early muscle, liver and neural cells ‘hide out’ in the bone marrow

Abstract: It has been suggested that bone marrow (BM)-derived hematopoietic stem cells transdifferentiate into tissue-specific stem cells (the so-called phenomenon of stem cell plasticity), but the possibility of committed tissue-specific stem cells pre-existing in BM has not been given sufficient consideration. We hypothesized that (i) tissue-committed stem cells circulate at a low level in the peripheral blood (PB) under normal steady-state conditions, maintaining a pool of stem cells in peripheral tissues, and their levels increase in PB during stress/tissue injury, and (ii) they could be chemoattracted to the BM where they find a supportive environment and that the SDF-1-CXCR4 axis plays a prominent role in the homing/retention of these cells to BM niches. We performed all experiments using freshly isolated cells to exclude the potential for 'transdifferentiation' of hematopoietic stem or mesenchymal cells associated with in vitro culture systems. We detected mRNA for various early markers for muscle (Myf-5, Myo-D), neural (GFAP, nestin) and liver (CK19, fetoprotein) cells in circulating (adherent cell-depleted) PB mononuclear cells (MNC) and increased levels of expression of these markers in PB after mobilization by G-CSF (as measured using real-time RT-PCR). Furthermore, SDF-1 chemotaxis combined with real-time RT-PCR analysis revealed that (i) these early tissue-specific cells reside in normal murine BM, (ii) express CXCR4 on their surface and (iii) can be enriched (up to 60 x) after chemotaxis to an SDF-1 gradient. These cells were also highly enriched within purified populations of murine Sca-1(+) BM MNC as well as of human CD34(+)-, AC133(+)- and CXCR4-positive cells. We also found that the expression of mRNA for SDF-1 is upregulated in damaged heart, kidney and liver. Hence our data provide a new perspective on BM not only as a home for hematopoietic stem cells but also a 'hideout' for already differentiated CXCR4-positive tissue-committed stem/progenitor cells that follow an SDF-1 gradient, could be mobilized into PB, and subsequently take part in organ/tissue regeneration.

Growth factors regulate the survival and fate of cells derived from human neurospheres

Abstract: Cells isolated from the embryonic, neonatal, and adult rodent central nervous system divide in response to epidermal growth factor (EGF) and fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2), while retaining the ability to differentiate into neurons and glia. These cultures can be grown in aggregates termed neurospheres, which contain a heterogeneous mix of both multipotent stem cells and more restricted progenitor populations. Neurospheres can also be generated from the embryonic human brain and in some cases have been expanded for extended periods of time in culture. However, the mechanisms controlling the number of neurons generated from human neurospheres are poorly understood. Here we show that maintaining cell-cell contact during the differentiation stage, in combination with growth factor administration, can increase the number of neurons generated under serum-free conditions from 8% to > 60%. Neurotrophic factors 3 and 4 (NT3, NT4) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) were the most potent, and acted by increasing neuronal survival rather than inducing neuronal phenotype. Following differentiation, the neurons could survive dissociation and either replating or transplantation into the adult rat brain. This experimental system provides a practically limitless supply of enriched, non-genetically transformed neurons. These should be useful for both neuroactive drug screening in vitro and possibly cell therapy for neurodegenerative diseases.