| First Author | Gebara E | Year | 2016 |
| Journal | Stem Cells | Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 4 | Pages | 997-1010 |
| PubMed ID | 26729510 | Mgi Jnum | J:272068 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6282677 | Doi | 10.1002/stem.2266 |
| Citation | Gebara E, et al. (2016) Heterogeneity of Radial Glia-Like Cells in the Adult Hippocampus. Stem Cells 34(4):997-1010 |
| abstractText | Adult neurogenesis is tightly regulated by the neurogenic niche. Cellular contacts between niche cells and neural stem cells are hypothesized to regulate stem cell proliferation or lineage choice. However, the structure of adult neural stem cells and the contact they form with niche cells are poorly described. Here, we characterized the morphology of radial glia-like (RGL) cells, their molecular identity, proliferative activity, and fate determination in the adult mouse hippocampus. We found the coexistence of two morphotypes of cells with prototypical morphological characteristics of RGL stem cells: Type alpha cells, which represented 76% of all RGL cells, displayed a long primary process modestly branching into the molecular layer and type beta cells, which represented 24% of all RGL cells, with a shorter radial process highly branching into the outer granule cell layer-inner molecular layer border. Stem cell markers were expressed in type alpha cells and coexpressed with astrocytic markers in type beta cells. Consistently, in vivo lineage tracing indicated that type alpha cells can give rise to neurons, astrocytes, and type beta cells, whereas type beta cells do not proliferate. Our results reveal that the adult subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus harbors two functionally different RGL cells, which can be distinguished by simple morphological criteria, supporting a morphofunctional role of their thin cellular processes. Type beta cells may represent an intermediate state in the transformation of type alpha, RGL stem cells, into astrocytes. |
