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The rising star of neural stem cell research

Nature Biotechnology volume 16, pages 1007–1008 (1998)Cite this article

A neuroscientist, gazing up at the night sky full of glittering stars—some of them bright and very close, others more distant and barely visible—cannot help but be struck by the similarity to brain sciences. Like stars, many aspects of neuroscience are clearly discernible, whereas others remain hidden from sight, beyond the realm of current knowledge. Ultimately, it will be necessary to piece together all this information to obtain an accurate picture of the nervous system and its inner workings. In this context, the rapidly growing field of neural progenitor and stem cell biology promises to become an increasingly bright star in the coming years. Two papers in this issue1,2 provide a hint of the potential of neural stem cell approaches in replacement therapy and as candidates for central nervous system (CNS) gene therapy paradigms.

Over the years, enormous attention has focused on understanding the developmental origins of the nervous system. Scientists have postulated the existence of a single "stem" cell—a mother or queen of all cells—that is self-renewable and multipotent (i.e., capable of generating various committed progenitor cells and ultimately differentiating into mature cells)3. A neural stem cell (NSC) is defined as a single cell with the ability to proliferate, exhibit self-maintenance or renewal over the lifetime of the organism, generate a large number of clonally related progeny, retain its multilineage potential over time, and produce new cells in response to injury or disease4. This last criterion has proved particularly troublesome for neurobiologists.

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Figure 1: Lineage of neural stem cells present in fetal brain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tanja Zigova is assistant professor and Paul R. Sanberg is professor and chair in the division of neurological surgery and neuroscience program, University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa, 33612, FL

    Tanja Zigova & Paul R. Sanberg

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  1. Tanja Zigova
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  2. Paul R. Sanberg
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Zigova, T., Sanberg, P. The rising star of neural stem cell research. Nat Biotechnol 16, 1007–1008 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/3450

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