A new and safe method for stereotactically harvesting neural stem/progenitor cells from the adult rat subventricular zone
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Updated: May 4, 2026
Author Spotlight: Collecting Neural Stem and Progenitor Cells from Live Animals Using a Novel Brain Milking Protocol
Published on: February 9, 2024
Hadi Aligholi1, Gholamreza Hassanzadeh2, Hassan Azari3
1Department of Neuroscience, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Shefa Neuroscience Research Center, Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital, Tehran, Iran.
Background:
Adult neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs) are one of the outstanding cell sources for therapeutic purposes in the central nervous system diseases. Autologous transplantation of NS/PCs still is a matter of controversy due to the safety issue as well as efficiency of harvesting these cells from the live mammalian brain subventricular zone (SVZ).
New Method:
In this new and safe method, a 16-guage semi-automatic biopsy needle was used stereotactically to remove a piece of SVZ. Then, the proliferation and differentiation capacity of obtained cells were assessed. In addition, the safety of the biopsy procedure was analyzed employing the Morris water maze, modified neurologic severity score, passive avoidance and open field tests.
Results:
Despite being very small in size, the SVZ specimen could generate a large number of progeny with the ability to differentiate into neuronal and glial cells. The biopsy procedure introduced in this study did not have any impact on the behavioral and neurological processes.
Comparison With Existing Method(S):
existing SVZ biopsy methods were uncontrollable techniques which harvested brain tissue by aspiration using a syringe not a semi-automatic biopsy needle. Also, previous methods were not evaluated in terms of behavior and cognition.
Conclusions:
This study revealed a considerable safety and efficacy for the stereotactical removal of the adult rat SVZ to harvest NS/PCs for autologous transplantation.
