neural stem cells

The lab in the last few years has been involved in studies on the differentiation of new neurons starting from neural stem cells derived from adult mouse brains.

'An interesting functional analysis of voltage ionic channels activation during differentiation of a novel subclass of neural precursors collected from ischemic subventricular zone of lateral ventricles that yields more neurons than classical adult neural precursors obtained from fresh tissue and defined by morphological evidences. Authors demonstrate that there is a dissociation between biochemical and electrophysiological maturation of murine neural precursors and the steps leading to morphological and functional maturation are in vitro independently regulated. I found the manuscript innovative and appropriate; it offers the opportunity to better clarify stem cells behavior during differentiation process and to hypothesize their potential utilization for a regenerative approach to CNS diseases.' (From the research evaluation done by an independent reviewer)

Expression of specific markers after differentiation. Post-mortem NPCs formed typical neurospheres (A). After removal of growth factor (EGF and FGF), NPCs differentiate and became positive for b-tubulin III (B), and for MAP2 (C) both revealed by the green labelling. GFAP-labelled cells (D) are red. Nuclei are blue (DAPI)