UK have found a protein made by blood vessels in the brain that could be a good candidate for regenerative therapies that stimulate the brain to repair itself after injury or disease.
NSCs have the potential to specialize in to new brain cells, such as in the olfactory bulb, responsible for our sense of smell, and the hippocampus, which plays a key role in forming memories and learning.
Although most nerve cells or neurons in the adult brain are made in the womb and soon after birth, they are still produced later on in life, thanks to neural stem cells or NSCs.
NSCs inhabit specialized niches in the adult brain of mammals: these include the subventricular zone and the dentate gyrus, which also control how the stem cells behave.
These niches also contain other cell types, and along with NSCs they are often found next to blood vessels.
The niches generate a range of signals that control how speedy the NSCs divide and the categories of cell they turn in to. Usually these cells become neurons or brain cells that communicate messages, but when the brain suffers an injury like a stroke, most of the time, the NSCs turn in to glial cells which become scar tissue.
In this study, the MRC researchers studied the interaction between the cells that line the blood vessels (endothelial cells) and the NSCs, and found that a protein called betacellulin (BTC) boosted brain regeneration in mice by stimulating the NSCs to multiply and form new brain cells.
When they gave mice more BTC, they noticed a significant increase in both stem cells and neuroblasts, leading to formation of lots of new neurons in their brains.
The researchers found that BTC, which is produced by cells within the blood vessels in the stem cell niches, signals to both the stem cells and to dividing cells called neuroblasts, triggering their proliferation.
