The maintenance of a neural stem cell (NSC) population in mammalian postnatal and adult life is crucial for continuous neurogenesis and neural repair. However, the molecular mechanism of how NSC populations are maintained remains unclear. Gangliosides are important cellular membrane components in the nervous system. We previously showed that ganglioside GD3 plays a crucial role in the maintenan...

The past few years have seen major advances in the field of NSC (neural stem cell) research with increasing emphasis towards its application in cell-replacement therapy for neurological disorders. However, the clinical application of NSCs will remain largely unfeasible until a comprehensive understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of NSC fate specification is achieved. With this u...

Like embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can differentiate into all three germ layers in an in vitro system. Here, we developed a new technology for obtaining neural stem cells (NSCs) from iPSCs through chimera formation, in an in vivo environment. iPSCs contributed to the neural lineage in the chimera, which could be efficiently purified and directly cultured as NSCs i...

Murine neural stem cells (mNSCs), either naive or genetically modified to express supranormal levels of β-galactocerebrosidase (GALC), were transplanted into the brain of Twitcher mice, a murine model of globoid cell leukodystrophy, a severe sphingolipidosis. Cells engrafted long-term into the host cytoarchitecture, producing functional GALC. Levels of enzyme activity in brain and spinal cord t...

Neural stem cells (NSC) biology is being applied to tumor research because these cells have been shown to share key properties with cancer cells. Gliomas represent the most common brain tumor, and neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPC) or early-differentiated cell type lineages may be on its origin. Here, we identified the developmental stage of the differentiation process of NSC into astrocytes t...

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are primary progenitors that give rise to neurons and glia in the embryonic, neonatal and adult brain. In recent years, we have learned three important things about these cells. First, NSCs correspond to cells previously thought to be committed glial cells. Second, embryonic and adult NSCs are lineally related: they transform from neuroepithelial cells into radial glia,...

There are two types of neural stem cells (NSCs). Primitive NSCs [leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) dependent but exogenous fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 2 independent] can be derived from mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells in vitro and from embryonic day 5.5 (E5.5) to E7.5 epiblast and E7.5-E8.5 neuroectoderm in vivo. Definitive NSCs (LIF independent but FGF2 dependent) first appear in the E8.5 ne...

Galectin-1 (gal-1), a special lectin with high affinity to β-galactosides, is implicated in protection against ischemic brain injury. The present study investigated transplantation of gal-1-secreting neural stem cell (s-NSC) into ischemic brains and identified the mechanisms underlying protection. To accomplish this goal, secretory gal-1 was stably overexpressed in NE-4C neural stem cells. Tran...

It is reported that neural stem cells (NSC) can arrest denervated muscle atrophy and promote nerve regeneration when transplanted into injured peripheral nerves, and that regenerated host axons can form synapses with transplanted and differentiated NSC. In this study, F344 rat nerve segments and F344 rat NSC were transplanted into host green fluorescence protein (GFP) transgenic F344 rats. This...

Direct conversion of somatic cells into neural stem cells (NSCs) by defined factors holds great promise for mechanistic studies, drug screening, and potential cell therapies for different neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we report that a single zinc-finger transcription factor, Zfp521, is sufficient for direct conversion of human fibroblasts into long-term self-renewable and multipotent NSCs. ...