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Adult zebrafish can regenerate brain cells after injury; now researchers in Germany have traced the origin of the replacement cells.
Michael Brand and his colleagues at the Technical University of Dresden engineered zebrafish in which they could follow the lineage of developing neural cells as the adult brain recovered from a stab injury. The team found that the basic brain architecture was restored, with no apparent scarring in a type of neural cell called glia. Neural progenitor cells called radial glia divided and generated neuroblasts — cells that develop into neurons — which then travelled to the site of injury.
The newly generated neurons survived for more than three months and expressed proteins appropriate to adult neurons.
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How the zebrafish brain mends itself. Nature 479, 271 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/479271e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/479271e
