Stem Cells Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Stem Cells, including details on research, transplants, therapy, benefits.

Neural stem cells in the adult ciliary epithelium express GFAP and are regulated by Wnt signaling.

Das AV, Zhao X, James J, Kim M, Cowan KH, Ahmad I

Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198-5840, USA.

The identification of neural stem cells with retinal potential in the ciliary epithelium (CE) of the adult mammals is of considerable interest because of their potential for replacing or rescuing degenerating retinal neurons in disease or injury. The evaluation of such a potential requires characterization of these cells with regard to their phenotypic properties, potential, and regulatory mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate that rat CE stem cells/progenitors in neurosphere culture display astrocytic nature in terms of expressing glial intermediate neurofilament protein, GFAP. The GFAP-expressing CE stem cells/progenitors form neurospheres in proliferating conditions and generate neurons when shifted to differentiating conditions. These cells express components of the canonical Wnt pathway and its activation promotes their proliferation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the activation of the canonical Wnt pathway influences neuronal differentiation of CE stem cells/progenitors in a context dependent manner. Our observations suggest that CE stem cells/progenitors share phenotypic properties and regulatory mechanism(s) with neural stem cells elsewhere in the adult CNS.

Published 7 December 2005 in Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 339(2): 708-16.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Stem Cells Research Today. All Rights Reserved.