Morphological and functional studies of cells derived from post-natal neural stem cells

iv CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION Introduction 1 Thesis Organization 2 Literature Review 2 References 17 CHAPTER 2. DEVELOPMENT OF FUNCTIONAL NEURONS FROM POSTNATAL STEM CELLS IN VITRO Abstract 26 Introduction 27 Methods 29 Results 32 Discussion 36 References 38 Figures 41 CHAPTER 3. ASTROCYTES INFLUENCE NMDA RECEPTOR EXPRESSION IN POSTNATAL NEURAL STEM CELLS Abstract 49 Introduction 50 Methods 52 Results 54 Discussion 57 References 59 Figures 65 CHAPTER 4. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS General conclusions 72 Summary 72 Discussion 74 References 77 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 80