A carbohydrate-binding protein, Galectin-1, promotes proliferation of adult neural stem cells.
In the subventricular zone of the adult mammalian forebrain, neural stem cells (NSCs) reside and proliferate to generate young neurons. We screened factors that promoted the proliferation of NSCs in vitro by a recently developed proteomics technique, the ProteinChip system. In this screen, we identified a soluble carbohydrate-binding protein, Galectin-1, as a candidate. We show herein that Galectin-1 is expressed in a subset of slowly dividing subventricular zone astrocytes, which includes the NSCs. Based on results from intraventricular infusion experiments and phenotypic analyses of knockout mice, we demonstrate that Galectin-1 is an endogenous factor that promotes the proliferation of NSCs in the adult brain.
Sakaguchi
Masanori
M
Department of Physiology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan.
Shingo
Tetsuro
T
Shimazaki
Takuya
T
Okano
Hirotaka James
HJ
Shiwa
Mieko
M
Ishibashi
Satoru
S
Oguro
Hideyuki
H
Ninomiya
Mikiko
M
Kadoya
Toshihiko
T
Horie
Hidenori
H
Shibuya
Akira
A
Mizusawa
Hidehiro
H
Poirier
Françoise
F
Nakauchi
Hiromitsu
H
Sawamoto
Kazunobu
K
Okano
Hideyuki
H
D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D002241:Carbohydrates; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D037483:Galectin 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D010641:Phenotype; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D040081:Protein Array Analysis; D011485:Protein Binding; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*
D002241:Carbohydrates; D037483:Galectin 1