The long term goal of this study is to understand how mammalian CNS neurons and glia are generated. The murine cerebral cortex contains a large number of restricted neuronal progenitor cells at very early stages of embryogenesis. The remaining cells are multi-potent stem cells that are capable of generating both neurons and glia. An small number at early stages are restricted glial progenitors. Despite their relative rarity, cortical stem cells appear to be a major source of neurons and the major source of glia at early times. This proposal aims to examine how cortical stem cells are regulated so that they generate appropriate neuronal and glial progeny through development. The approach that has been developed in the applicant's lab has been to use clonal cultures in which the fates of individual cells are followed in detail with the use of time lapse video analysis. Thus, the entire lineage tress of cells in culture for extended periods of times can be followed and manipulated under the controlled conditions of the in vitro environment. The action of selected environmental factors (such as BMP and various trophic factors) on neuron or glial production will be examined. Diverse types of neurons and glia arise over time in these cultures and these will be followed step-by-step (with an emphasis on glial lineages) as differentiated cells are generated from the cloned progenitor cells. Also candidate genes that may play a pivotal role in neuron or glial generation in the developing cerebral cortex will be investigated. In particular, the expression of the vertebrate homologue Drosophila neural lineages, will be assessed in cortical neuroblast lineages using antibodies. An interesting gene known as glial cells missing will be examined as the lineages switch dramatically and spontaneously from making neurons to making largely glial.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01NS033529-08
Application #
6529147
Study Section
Neurology B Subcommittee 2 (NEUB)
Program Officer
Chiu, Arlene Y
Project Start
1995-08-15
Project End
2003-07-31
Budget Start
2002-08-01
Budget End
2003-07-31
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$297,884
Indirect Cost
Name
Albany Medical College
Department
Pharmacology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
City
Albany
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
12208
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Winter, Mark; Wait, Eric; Roysam, Badrinath et al. (2011) Vertebrate neural stem cell segmentation, tracking and lineaging with validation and editing. Nat Protoc 6:1942-52
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Abramova, Natalia; Charniga, Carol; Goderie, Susan K et al. (2005) Stage-specific changes in gene expression in acutely isolated mouse CNS progenitor cells. Dev Biol 283:269-81
Capela, Alexandra; Temple, Sally (2002) LeX/ssea-1 is expressed by adult mouse CNS stem cells, identifying them as nonependymal. Neuron 35:865-75
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Shen, Qin; Zhong, Weimin; Jan, Yuh Nung et al. (2002) Asymmetric Numb distribution is critical for asymmetric cell division of mouse cerebral cortical stem cells and neuroblasts. Development 129:4843-53
He, W; Ingraham, C; Rising, L et al. (2001) Multipotent stem cells from the mouse basal forebrain contribute GABAergic neurons and oligodendrocytes to the cerebral cortex during embryogenesis. J Neurosci 21:8854-62

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