Direct cell-cell contact with the vascular niche maintains quiescent neural stem cells.

ABSTRACT: The vasculature is a prominent component of the subventricular zone neural stem cell niche. Although quiescent neural stem cells physically contact blood vessels at specialized endfeet, the significance of this interaction is not understood. In contrast, it is well established that vasculature-secreted soluble factors promote lineage progression of committed progenitors. Here we specifically investigated the role of cell-cell contact-dependent signalling in the vascular niche. Unexpectedly, we find that direct cell-cell interactions with endothelial cells enforce quiescence and promote stem cell identity. Mechanistically, endothelial ephrinB2 and Jagged1 mediate these effects by suppressing cell-cycle entry downstream of mitogens and inducing stemness genes to jointly inhibit differentiati

SUBMITTER: Ottone C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4298702 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature