Olig2+ neuroepithelial motoneuron progenitors are not multipotent stem cells in vivo.

ABSTRACT: Neurons and glia are thought to arise from multipotent and self-renewing stem cells, which comprise the majority of neuroepithelial cells in the ventricular zone (VZ) of the early embryonic CNS. However, this idea remains to be tested rigorously, because CNS stem cells have been identified only by using in vitro assays, from which their abundance in vivo cannot be directly inferred. In the hematopoietic system, stem cells are characterized by using prospective isolation and direct in vivo transplantation. Here we have used this approach to ask whether most VZ progenitors behave as stem cells in vivo. The best-studied region of the embryonic CNS for addressing this problem is, arguably, the ventral spinal cord, within which progenitors in the motoneuron progenitor (pMN) domain sequentially

SUBMITTER: Mukouyama YS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1345718 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature