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Radial glia and neural stem cells

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Abstract

During the last decade, the role of radial glia has been radically revisited. Rather than being considered a mere structural component serving to guide newborn neurons towards their final destinations, radial glia is now known to be the main source of neurons in several regions of the central nervous system, notably in the cerebral cortex. Radial glial cells differentiate from neuroepithelial progenitors at the beginning of neurogenesis and share with their ancestors the bipolar shape and the expression of some molecular markers. Radial glia, however, can be distinguished from neuroepithelial progenitors by the expression of astroglial markers. Clonal analyses showed that radial glia is a heterogeneous population, comprising both pluripotent and different lineage-restricted neural progenitors. At late-embryonic and postnatal stages, radial glial cells give rise to the neural stem cells responsible for adult neurogenesis. Embryonic pluripotent radial glia and adult neural stem cells may be clonally linked, thus representing a lineage displaying stem cell features in both the developing and mature central nervous system.

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Acknowledgment

We would like to acknowledge Prof. M. Götz for helpful comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Oncologia, Biologia e Genetica, Università degli Studi di Genova, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132, Genoa, Italy

    Paolo Malatesta, Irene Appolloni & Filippo Calzolari

  2. Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro (IST), IRCCS, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132, Genoa, Italy

    Paolo Malatesta, Irene Appolloni & Filippo Calzolari

Authors
  1. Paolo Malatesta
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  2. Irene Appolloni
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  3. Filippo Calzolari
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paolo Malatesta.

Additional information

This work was supported by AIRC (Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro) NUSUG grant (In vivo screening for genes implicated in glioma formation and development of new animal models of glial tumors) and by Fondazione CARIGE grant (Basi molecolari e cellulari dei gliomi: individuazione di marcatori diagnostici e di nuovi bersagli terapeutici).

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Malatesta, P., Appolloni, I. & Calzolari, F. Radial glia and neural stem cells. Cell Tissue Res 331, 165–178 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-007-0481-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-007-0481-8

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