Characterization of adult neural stem cells and their relation to brain tumors

The adult mammalian brain contains neural stem cells that are capable of generating new neurons and glia over the course of a lifetime. Neural stem cells reside in 2 germinal niches, the subventricular zone (SVZ) and the dentate gyrus subgranular zone. These primary progenitors have been identified in their niche in vivo; these cells have characteristics of astrocytes. Recent studies have shown that adult SVZ stem cells are derived from radial glia, the stem cells in the developing brain, which in turn are derived from the neuroepithelum, the earliest brain progenitors. Thus, SVZ stem cells are a continuum from neuroepithelium to radial glia to astrocytes, and are contained within what has been considered the lineage for astrocytes. However, it seems that only a small subset of the astrocytes present in the adult brain have stem cell properties. Recent findings have shown that SVZ stem cell astrocytes express a receptor for platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), suggesting that the ability to respond to specific growth factor stimuli, such as PDGF, epidermal growth factor and others, may be unique to these stem cell astrocytes. Intriguingly, activation of these same signaling pathways is widely implicated in brain tumor formation. Since the adult brain has very few proliferating cells capable of accumulating the numerous mutations required for transformation, the adult neural stem and/or progenitor cells may be likely candidates for the brain tumor cell of origin. Indeed, activation of the PDGF or epidermal growth factor pathways in adult neural stem or progenitor cells confers tumor-like properties on these cells, lending support to this hypothesis.