IS THERE A NEURAL STEM-CELL IN THE MAMMALIAN FOREBRAIN

Neural precursor cells have been of interest historically as the build ing blocks of the embryonic CNS and, most recently, as substrates for restorative neurological approaches,The majority of previous in vitro studies of the regulation of neural-cell proliferation by polypeptide growth factors, and in vivo studies of neural lineage, argue for the p resence of precursors with limited proliferative or lineage potential in the mammalian CNS. This is in contrast to renewable tissues, such a s the blood or immune system, skin epithelium and epithelium of the sm all intestinal crypts, which contain specialized, self-renewing cells known as stem cells, However, recent in vitro and in vivo studies from our and other laboratories lead us to conclude that neural stem cells , with self-renewal and multilineage potential, ave present in the emb ryonic through to adult mammalian forebrain.