Induction of neurogenesis in the neocortex of adult mice

Sanjay S. Magavi, Blair R. Leavitt and Jeffrey D. Macklis ()
Additional contact information
Sanjay S. Magavi: Children's Hospital
Blair R. Leavitt: Children's Hospital
Jeffrey D. Macklis: Children's Hospital

Nature, 2000, vol. 405, issue 6789, 951-955

Abstract: Abstract Neurogenesis normally only occurs in limited areas of the adult mammalian brain—the hippocampus1, olfactory bulb2,3,4 and epithelium5, and at low levels in some regions of macaque cortex6. Here we show that endogenous neural precursors can be induced in situ to differentiate into mature neurons, in regions of adult mammalian neocortex that do not normally undergo any neurogenesis. This differentiation occurs in a layer- and region-specific manner, and the neurons can re-form appropriate corticothalamic connections. We induced synchronous apoptotic degeneration7,8 of corticothalamic neurons in layer VI of anterior cortex of adult mice and examined the fates of dividing cells within cortex, using markers for DNA replication (5-bromodeoxyuridine; BrdU) and progressive neuronal differentiation. Newly made, BrdU-positive cells expressed NeuN, a mature neuronal marker, in regions of cortex undergoing targeted neuronal death and survived for at least 28 weeks. Subsets of BrdU+ precursors expressed Doublecortin, a protein found exclusively in migrating neurons9,10, and Hu, an early neuronal marker11,12. Retrograde labelling from thalamus demonstrated that BrdU+ neurons can form long-distance corticothalamic connections. Our results indicate that neuronal replacement therapies for neurodegenerative disease and CNS injury may be possible through manipulation of endogenous neural precursors in situ.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35016083 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:405:y:2000:i:6789:d:10.1038_35016083

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35016083

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().