The question was posed: if the adult brain has pockets of stem cells that

can become neurons, astroglial cells (which play a crucial role in generating and maintaining the health of neurons), and oligodendrocytes (a third type of cell in the brain that insulates the neuronal axons so that they can Bleomycin molecular weight transmit their information efficiently), then why can’t the brain repair itself after Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical injury or disease? The answer seemed to be that the brain is capable of repairing itself and that it already does, to a limited extent. The current strategy is, therefore, to try to understand how, and perhaps to what end, adult neurogenesis normally occurs, in order to find ways whereby we can enhance it, direct it, and more generally harness the residual elements of neural plasticity that are inherent to neural self-repair as a treatment for brain disorders. Surprisingly, we may not be too far Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical away from this goal. Let’s first summarize what we know about the process of adult neurogenesis. What is adult neurogenesis/cell genesis? As it turns out, the birth of new brain cells or neurogenesis Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical is not an all-or-nothing

event. The multipotent stem cell divides periodically in the brain, giving rise to another stem cell (self-renewal) and some progeny that may grow up to be working cells, but the fate is not guaranteed. The progeny must move away from the influence of the mother stem cell into an area that is permissive for maturation. On average, about 50% of these newborn cells never make it and instead die and disappear. Those that do survive may become a neuron or glial cell, depending on where they end up and what type of activity is going on in that brain area at that time. Even so, it takes over a month from the time the new cell is born until it Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical is functionally integrated in the brain, receiving and sending information. Thus, neurogenesis is a process, not an event, and one that – as I said earlier and will emphasize repeatedly – is highly regulated. The factors that regulate

neurogenesis are being intensely investigated and new factors that modulate different components of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical neurogenesis are being discovered on a regular basis. For example, factors known to be important in development of the nervous system, like Sonic hedgehog11 (which was first discovered in fly brain and called hedgehog), mafosfamide have been shown to regulate the proliferation; BMPs (bone morphogenetic proteins) and Notch12 (which were also first discovered in fly brain) appear to be regulators of whether the newborn cells decide to become glia; and molecules associated with the glial cells that surround the stem cells instruct the newborn cells to become neurons. Once the cells are committed to becoming a neuron or glial cell, other growth factors like brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)13 and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)14play important roles in keeping the cells alive and encouraging the young cells to mature and become functional.