Abstract.
The mammalian brain is a paradox of evolution. Although the advance in complexity of the human brain has exceeded the development of other organs, it has practically lost the ability to regenerate, and damage is repaired mainly by functional plasticity. This disparity is, however, not due to the lack of progenitor cells in the adult mammalian brain, but to their diminished or repressed capacity to replace neurons in most brain regions. Here, we discuss the current literature describing the processes of neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain, and the recent advances in adult neural stem cells (aNSCs) with a focus on their identity, cell cycle and niche signals. Understanding these processes may hopefully lead to therapies in the future to reinstate self-repair of the brain from endogenous progenitors.
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Received 03 September 2008; received after revision 09 October 2008; accepted 14 October 2008
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0 ), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Basak, O., Taylor, V. Stem cells of the adult mammalian brain and their niche. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 66, 1057–1072 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-008-8544-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-008-8544-x