The hunt goes on for more accessible sources of neural stem cells. In this week's Journal, McKenzie et al. go to the skin as a source of neural crest precursors. When the authors treated rodent and human skin-derived precursors (SKPs) with forskolin and neuregulin-1a, some of the cells differentiated into Schwann cells. The authors then cocultured rodent SKP-derived Schwann cells, genetically labeled with yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), with dorsal root ganglion neurons from shiverer mice that lack myelin basic protein. After 3 weeks in vitro, most of the tagged Schwann cells were associated with axons, many took on a myelinating phenotype, and some proliferated, apparently in response to axon-derived cues. YFP-labeled, SKP-derived Schwann cells, transplanted into the sciatic nerve or brain of shiverer mice, also successfully myelinated axons. Significantly, naive human SKPs transplanted into injured peripheral nerve or neonatal mouse brain to neonatal shiverer mouse brains differentiated in vivo and formed compact myelin.

###

Ian A. McKenzie, Jeff Biernaskie, Jean G. Toma, Rajiv Midha, and Freda D. Miller

News tips from The Journal of Neuroscience

Contact: Sara Harris
Society for Neuroscience