Proliferation of Neonatal Periventricular Zone Progenitor Cells and N20.1 cells is increased by Transferrin

SILVESTROFF L., FRANCO P. G. AND PASQUINI J. M.

Baltimore

Conferencia; American Society for Neurochemistry 43st Annual Meeting; 2012

American Society for Neurochemistry

Neural Stem and Progenitor cells are multipotent and are capable of giving rise to neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in the Central Nervous System (CNS) in rodents and in humans, both during development and adulthood. The Periventricular Zone (PVZ) is known to be the largest niche within the CNS to harbor NSC/NPC in vivo in the neonatal brain. The PVZ tissue belonging to newborn rats was cultured under the form of neurospheres to evaluate Transferrin (Tf) effects on cell proliferation. According to transcription factor expression, neurospheres derived from the PVZ tissue of neonatal rat brains are heterogeneous and contain neural progenitor cells with different commitment potential. The results of this study indicate Tf is able to increase cell proliferation of these cells in vitro. The use of an immature oligodendrocyte cell line N20.1 shows Tf is able to augment cell proliferation in this system as well. The present work provides data that could have a potential application for human cell replacement therapies for neurodegenerative disease and/or CNS injury that require the use of human in vitro-amplifyed NPCs.