Creating a ventral midbrain stem cell niche in an animal model for parkinson's disease

Abstract

Neural progenitor cells reside in many regions of the adult brain. However, their capacity to generate new neurons relies on stem cell niches, consisting of stem cells, niche support cells, and basal lamina, which maintain stem cells and direct their differentiation and migration into tissue structures. Neurospheres are thought to expose neural progenitor cells to an environment reminiscent of the stem cell niche. We show that embryonic day 14.5 ventral mesencephalon neurospheres grafted into the midbrain of 6-hydroxydopamine lesioned mice express markers of mesenchymal cells, such as CD29 and CD44, and enclose a core of host-derived proliferating cells that express nestin, polysialic acid-n..