细胞技术

The generation of neuronal and glial cell types found in the mature central nervous system (CNS) involves the massive proliferation of ventricular zone cells of the fetal brain and spinal cord (1) that stop dividing early in development and terminally differentiate. Most neurons in the adult ...

Neural crest cells migrate from the dorsal aspect of the neural tube and differentiate into a variety of cell types in different locations. These cell types include peripheral neurons and glia (Schwann cells), melanocytes, endocrine cells, smooth muscle, skeletal muscle and bone (1). In vivo l ...

Development of the brain is a complex set of events beginning at the time that the fate of embryonic cells is decided. Once chosen, these cells proceed on their migratory track, which brings them to the brain regions in which they reside and settle down. Here, the cells differentiate into array of distinct ...

Direct surgical access to the mammalian embryo is made difficult by its protected position, enclosed in the uterus within the decidua and the embryonic membranes. This condition historically favored the development of experimental embryology in submammalian species like newts, f ...

For most of the history of neuroscience, it was widely believed, despite isolated reports to the contrary (1), that de novo generation of neurons in the mammalian CNS did not persist past perinatal development. It was not until the last decade of the twentieth century that the existence, within the CNS of ...

Differentiation of pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells into specific lineages is an important source of cells for implantation and gene delivery, as well as a useful model to study patterns of differentiation and gene expression during the very early development of the mammalian embryo ...

Generation of neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes in the nervous system involves a sequential process of differentiation. Initially, multipotent stem cells generate more restricted precursor cells, which go through additional stages of differentiation to generate ...

For years, it was generally believed that the normal mammalian postnatal brain had little capacity to produce new neuronal cells or to repair itself after injury (1). However, recent progress in neurobiology has led to a new understanding of the development and cell lineages of mammalian brain c ...

The ability to target biologically active molecules to precise locations in the central nervous system (CNS) is a promising therapeutic treatment. It overcomes many problems encountered by systemic delivery. Among these problems are the inability to penetrate the blood-brain barr ...

The study of the mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases is a highly demanding goal, complicated by the complexity and heterogeneity of the nervous system and by the long period of time over which these pathologies develop in humans. The use of“simplified” in vitro cell models is th ...

Cell replacement and gene transfer approaches for the diseased or injured CNS have provided the basis for the development of potentially powerful new therapeutic strategies for a broad spectrum of brain diseases. Transplantation of cells engineered to produce growth factors or mole ...

Recent advances in molecular biology have led to the identification of several genes expressed at key stages of neural development. In order to evaluate gene function, scientists have typically used transgenic model systems or retroviral gene delivery systems. However, these methods ...

Differential display is an efficient and reproducible method for the detection of differential gene expression between a variety of cells and/or tissue populations (1). The approach is based on reverse transcription with oligo-dT anchored primers and PCR in the presence of the original a ...

Reverse transcription and the polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) provides a very sensitive method to identify known genes that are both upregulated and downregulated during neuronal differentiation. First strand cDNAs are generated in the initial reaction with reverse transc ...

The use and study of neural stem cells (NSCs) both in vitro and in vivo has increased exponentially over the past 6–8 years, with the majority of laboratories working toward the use of these cells therapeutically. The bulk of the characterization of NSCs has relied on immunocytochemical techniqu ...

The recognition of the potential use of stem cells in the body gives immense hope for the restoration of cell function lost to degenerative disease, injury, or genetic disorders. To prove that transplanted stem cells are actually surviving and functioning, it is necessary to label them for track ...

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are an undifferentiated population of cells residing in the tissue lining the ventricular system of both the embryonic and adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) (1–3). When isolated under the appropriate genetic or epigenetic conditions, NSCs have the abi ...

Telomeres are specialized nucleoprotein structures that cap linear eukaryotic chromosomes and function to prevent the chromosomes from recombining or unraveling (1). Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein (RNP) polymerase that synthesizes telomeric sequence de novo onto the 3′ e ...

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represent a main population of stem cells and can differentiate into multiple cell lineages. Recently, MSC transplantation has been applied to repair the malfunctioned tissues. However, increasing evidences show that some MSCs expanded in vitro and in the ...

Bone-derived stroma cells contain a rare subpopulation, which exhibits enhanced stemness characteristics. Therefore, this particular cell type is often attributed the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC). Due to their high proliferation potential, multipotential differentiati ...