Neurons from stem cells: implications for understanding nervous system development and repair.
Neurodegenerative diseases cost the economies of the developed world billions of dollars per annum. Given ageing population profiles and the increasing extent of this problem, there has been a surge of interest in neural stem cells and in neural differentiation protocols that yield neural cells for therapeutic transplantation. Due to the oncogenic potential of stem cells a better characterisation of neural differentiation, including the identification of new neurotrophic factors, is required. Stem cell cultures undergoing synchronous in vitro neural differentiation provide a valuable resource for gene discovery. Novel tools such as microarrays promise to yield information regarding gene expression in stem cells. With the completion of the yeast, C. elegans, Drosophila, human, and mouse genome projects, the functional characterisation of genes using genetic and bioinformatic tools will aid in the identification of important regulators of neural differentiation.
Mansergh
F C
FC
Department of Oncology, The University of Calgary, AB, Canada.
Wride
M A
MA
Rancourt
D E
DE
D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D016380:Brain Tissue Transplantation; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage; D002465:Cell Movement; D017690:Cell Transplantation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D008818:Mice, Neurologic Mutants; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D009420:Nervous System / Q000166:cytology*; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000166:cytology; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000166:cytology; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D014162:Transfection
D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins