The therapeutic potential of adult neural stem cells

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are self-renewing, multipotent cells that generate the neuronal and glial cells of the nervous system. In mammals, contrary to long-held belief, neurogenesis occurs in the adult brain, and NSCs reside in the adult central nervous system. Thus, the brain may be amenable to repair following damage, and new avenues for cell-based therapy are being considered for the treatment of brain disease and injury, such as the stimulation of endogenous progenitor cells, the transplantation of adult-derived neural progenitor and stem cells, and, in particular, autologous cell transplantation. Although significant advances in this field have been made over the past decade, the adult NSC remains an elusive cell for study, and researchers are facing multiple challenges to the development of therapeutic applications from adult NSC research. Among these challenges are the identification and characterization of NSCs in vivo and in vitro, the understanding of the physiology of newly generated neuronal cells in the adult brain, the stimulation of endogenous progenitor cells to promote functional recovery, and the isolation and culture of homogenous populations of neural progenitor or stem cells from the adult brain for cell-based therapy.