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Culturing Adult Neural Stem Cells: Application to the Study of Neurodegenerative and Neuropsychiatric Pathology

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Neurogenesis in the Adult Brain II

Abstract

Stem cells exist in many, perhaps all, adult tissues and serve the common function of a reservoir of precursors that can mediate cell turnover or repair damage. Among tissue-specific stem cell populations, neural stem cells are particularly amenable to study because they are readily isolated and cultured in simple culture systems that allow demonstration of cell-autonomous self-renewal and multipotentiality. Here, we describe the most widely employed culture system, the neurosphere assay, used to reveal these cardinal properties of neural stem cells which respond to specific growth factors and proliferate in serum-free media to form clonal sphere colonies. Although several pitfalls and limitations exist, the neurosphere assay can provide detailed information about kinetics and behavior of neural stem cells when utilized under appropriate conditions. Further, the neurosphere assay together with histochemical analysis using nucleotide analog labeling may be applied to estimate the number and cellular kinetics of neural stem cells in the adult brain under physiological and pathological conditions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neurobiology and Bioinformatics, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, 5-1 Higashiyama Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi, 444-8787, Japan

    Seiji Hitoshi

  2. Department of Physiological Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Kanagawa, 240-0193, Japan

    Seiji Hitoshi

  3. Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Tod Kippin

  4. The Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Tod Kippin

  5. Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Derek van der Kooy

Authors
  1. Seiji Hitoshi
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  2. Tod Kippin
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  3. Derek van der Kooy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seiji Hitoshi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Histology and Neuroanatomy, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, 160-8402, Japan

    Tatsunori Seki Ph.D. (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Institute of Molecular Medicine Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, 1 Kawasumi, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, 467-8601, Japan

    Kazunobu Sawamoto Ph.D. (Professor) (Professor)

  3. Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, 109 Zina Pitcher Place 5021 BSRB, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Jack M. Parent M.D. (Associate Professor) (Associate Professor)

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Arturo Alvarez-Buylla Ph.D. (Professor) (Professor)

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Hitoshi, S., Kippin, T., van der Kooy, D. (2011). Culturing Adult Neural Stem Cells: Application to the Study of Neurodegenerative and Neuropsychiatric Pathology. In: Seki, T., Sawamoto, K., Parent, J.M., Alvarez-Buylla, A. (eds) Neurogenesis in the Adult Brain II. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-53945-2_10

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