Post-traumatic regeneration, neurogenesis and neuronal migration in the adult mammalian brain

Unlike the peripheral nervous system (PNS), the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) clearly lacks the robust regenerative characteristics and capacity of the former. Despite this fact, two unique regions of the adult mammalian CNS possess such regenerative potential and are capable of active regeneration following injury or structural compromise. These unique areas are the olfactory system and the neurohypophyseal system of the endocrine hypothalamus. Furthermore, it has been clearly demonstrated that primordial neuroblasts regarded as stem cells emerge from the subependymal parenchyma of the walls and floor of the third cerebral ventricle, migrate to the ventricular surface and undergo compensatory synaptogenesis within one week following hypophysectomy. In situ hybridization studies have unequivocally demonstrated that the up-regulation of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) is essential for neural (axonal) regeneration and neuronal (stem cell) migration to occur. Moreover, neuronal migration is reliably inhibited following the administration of the NO antagonist, nitroarginine. The current investigation serves to confirm a remarkable degree of plasticity and regeneration in the adult mammalian neurohypophyseal system coupled with the emergence of primordial neuroblasts that undergo apparent differentiation, migration and compensatory synaptogenesis in response to the up-regulation of NO that occurs following the trauma of hypophysectomy. Evidence from the current investigation appears to confirm that specialized glia of the neurohypophyseal system, the so-called pituicyte, proliferate following hypophysectomy and may serve as a growth matrix or structural template that may target and direct regenerating Supraoptic (SON) and Paraventricular (PVN) axons toward endothelial primordia in the regenerating neural stem and lobe.