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Unique
astrocyte ribbon in adult human brain contains neural stem cells but lacks chain
migration
Nader Sanai1,2, Anthony D.
Tramontin1,2, Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa1, Nicholas M.
Barbaro1, Nalin Gupta1, Sandeep Kunwar1,
Michael T. Lawton1, Michael W. McDermott1, Andrei T. Parsa1,
José Manuel-García Verdugo3, Mitchel S. Berger1, Arturo
Alvarez-Buylla1,2
1Department
of Neurological Surgery and Brain Tumor Research Center, and 2Developmental
Stem Cell Biology Program, University of California San Francisco, San
Francisco, California 94143, USA; 3Instituto Cavanilles,
University of Valencia, 46100, Spain
Correspondence
and requests for materials should be addressed to N.S. (nsanai@itsa.ucsf.edu) or
A.A.-B. (abuylla@itsa.ucsf.edu).
The
subventricular zone (SVZ) is a principal source of adult neural stem cells in
the rodent brain, generating thousands of olfactory bulb neurons every day.
If
the adult human brain contains a comparable germinal region, this could have
considerable implications for future neuroregenerative therapy.
Stem cells have
been isolated from the human brain, but the identity, organization and function
of adult neural stem cells in the human SVZ are unknown.
Here we describe a
ribbon of SVZ astrocytes lining the lateral ventricles of the adult human brain
that proliferate in vivo and behave as multipotent progenitor cells in
vitro.
This astrocytic ribbon has not been observed in other vertebrates
studied.
Unexpectedly, we find no evidence of chains of migrating neuroblasts in
the SVZ or in the pathway to the olfactory bulb.
Our work identifies SVZ
astrocytes as neural stem cells in a niche of unique organization in the adult
human brain.
© 2004 Nature Publishing Group
Source:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6976/abs/nature02301.html
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