title: Cerebellar neural stem cells differentiate into two distinct types of astrocytes in response to CNTF and BMP2.
abstract: Neural stem cells (NSCs) are present in postnatal murine cerebellum. The detailed characteristics of these NSCs have never been reported. This study isolated NSC-like cells from postnatal mouse cerebellum. These cells proliferated in response to epidermal growth factor, expressed various NSC markers, and had the ability to self-renew. Neurosphere assays revealed that these cells could differentiate into neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes, indicating multipotency as NSCs. Although possessing multipotency, most of these cells differentiated into astrocytes spontaneously in vitro. Both ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) facilitated expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and some other characteristics of mature astrocytes by these cells. However, the shape and expression of glutamine transporter GLT-1 of GFAP(+) cells generated in the presence of CNTF or BMP2 differed significantly, suggesting that CNTF and BMP2 induced differentiation of these NSCs into two distinct types of astrocytes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan.
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okano-Uchida
authors.forename: Masae
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naruse
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ikezawa
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shibasaki
authors.forename: Yasuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishizaki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D020934:Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology*; D027342:Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 2 / Q000378:metabolism; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: C525719:Bmp2 protein, mouse; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2; D020934:Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor; D027342:Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 2; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein
keywords: Astrocyte; BMP2; CNTF; Cerebellum; Neural stem cell