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The adult neural stem cells have the ability to differentiate into any of the three main phenotypes found in the CNS: neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.
The Neurosphere Assay developed in the early 1990s was used to demonstrate the presence and functionality of NSCs. Mitogen stimulation in a serum-free environment will induce the formation of small cell clusters, containing cells able to propagate further.
The assay has been used to identify NSCs from various regions of mouse, rat and human brain, however, NSCs isolated from different regions and species exhibit different growth regulation properties in vitro. For example, human NSCs have a slower growth rate than mouse cells, and cells from rat CNS tissue often cannot be expanded for more than 30 days in neurosphere cultures.
There is an emerging strong belief that therapeutic neurogenesis and neuroprotection using neural stem cells can revolutionize the treatment of several currently incurable neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington's disease. Several candidate drugs are being developed and tested.
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