Study of developmentally regulated transcription factors by chromatin immunoprecipitation and sequencing (ChIP-seq) faces two major obstacles: availability of ChIP grade antibodies and access to sufficient number of cells. We describe a versatile method for genome-wide analysis of transcription factor binding sites by combining directed differentiation of embryonic stem cells and inducible expr...

Glioblastoma is the most common adult primary brain tumor and has a dismal median survival. Radiation is a mainstay of treatment and significantly improves survival, yet recurrence is nearly inevitable. Better understanding the radiation response of glioblastoma will help improve strategies to treat this devastating disease. Here, we present a comprehensive study of the in vivo radiation respon...

Development of oligodendrocytes, myelin-forming glia in the central nervous system (CNS), proceeds on a protracted schedule. Specification of oligodendrocyte progenitors (OLPs) begins early in development, whereas their terminal differentiation occurs at late embryonic and postnatal periods. How these distinct steps are controlled remains unclear. Our previous study demonstrated an important ro...

Mental retardation and early Alzheimer's disease (AD) have generally been attributed to progressive neuronal loss in the developing and mature Down syndrome (DS) brain. However, reduced neuronal production during development could also contribute to the smaller brain size and simplified gyral patterning seen in this disorder. Here, we show impairments in proliferation within the ventricular zon...

The mammalian spinal cord does not regenerate motor neurons that are lost as a result of injury or disease. Here we demonstrate that adult zebrafish, which show functional spinal cord regeneration, are capable of motor neuron regeneration. After a spinal lesion, the ventricular zone shows a widespread increase in proliferation, including slowly proliferating olig2-positive (olig2+) ependymo-rad...

Investigating neural stem cell plasticity in the hippocampal niche, we demonstrate that retroviral forced expression of Mash1 (Mammalian Achaete-Scute Homolog 1), Olig1 (Oligodendrocyte transcription factor 1), and Olig2 (Oligodendrocyte transcription factor 2) genes, transcription factors involved in enhanced oligodendrogenesis, can contribute to directing the differentiation of adult subventr...

Introduction: The nerve fibers in central nervous system are surrounded by myelin sheet  which is formed by oligodendrocytes. Cell therapy based on oligodendrocytes and their precursors transplantation can hold a promising alternative treatment for myelin sheet repair in demyelinating diseases. Methods: Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells (hDPSCs) are noninvasive, autologous and easy available s...

In this study, we propose a method to detect and segment the oligodendrocytes and gliomas in OLIG2 immunoperoxidase stained tissue sections. In general, glioma cells and oligodendrocytes mostly differ in shape and size within the tissue slide. In Olig2 stained tissue images, gliomas are represented with irregularly shaped nuclei with varying sizes and brown shades. On the other hand, oligodendr...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although in vitro studies suggest that non-neurogenic regions of the adult central nervous system potentially contain multipotent parenchymal progenitors, neurons are clearly not replaced in most brain regions after injury. Here, in a well-established model of mild transient brain ischemia, we explored Olig2 antagonism and Pax6 overexpression as potential avenues to redir...

The mammalian spinal cord does not regenerate motor neurons that are lost as a result of injury or disease. Here we demonstrate that adult zebrafish, which show functional spinal cord regeneration, are capable of motor neuron regeneration. After a spinal lesion, the ventricular zone shows a widespread increase in proliferation, including slowly proliferating olig2-positive (olig2 ) ependymo-rad...