Is Pax6 critical for neurogenesis in the human fetal brain?

ABSTRACT: Transcription factor Pax6 plays an important role in fate determination of neural progenitor cells in animal models, yet, its distribution and role in the human developing brain have not been reported. Here we demonstrated that Pax6 was strongly expressed in dorsal and ventral proliferative zones, mainly in proliferating radial glia (RG) cells, some neuronal and intermediate progenitors, and sporadic deep cortical plate neurons. In contrast to reports in rodents, Pax6 in the human fetal brain occasionally colocalized with ventral transcription factor Olig2 in progenitor cells. Transfection with short interfering RNA abolished Pax6 expression in the cell cultures of human fetal RG, and significantly decreased the number of neurons generated from Pax6 knock-down cells. Hence, Pax6 has a crit

SUBMITTER: Mo Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2670483 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature