EphB signaling controls lineage plasticity of adult neural stem cell niche cells

By T. Nomura, C. Göritz, Timothy Catchpole, M. Henkemeyer, J. Frisén. 2010

105 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Stem cells remain in specialized niches over the lifespan of the organism in many organs to ensure tissue homeostasis and enable regeneration. How the niche is maintained is not understood, but is likely as important as intrinsic stem cell self-renewal capacity for tissue integrity. We here demonstrate a high degree of phenotypic plasticity of the two main niche cell types, ependymal cells and astrocytes, in the neurogenic lateral ventricle walls in the adult mouse brain. In response to a lesion, astrocytes give rise to ependymal cells and ependymal cells give rise to niche astrocytes. We identify EphB2 forward signaling as a key pathway regulating niche cell plasticity. EphB2 acts downstream of Notch and is required for the maintenance of ependymal cell characteristics, thereby inhibiting the transition from ependymal cell to astrocyte. Our results show that niche cell identity is actively maintained and that niche cells retain a high level of plasticity.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Developmental Neuroscience

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Citations in the corpus

Adult Neurogenesis in the Mammalian Brain: Significant Answers and Significant Questions (2011, background): “Do putative adult neural stem cells display a temporally segregated sequence of symmetric self-renewal, neurogenesis, and gliogenesis as occurs during embryonic cortical development (reviewed by Okano and Temple, 2009)?”
Ephrins and Eph receptors in stem cells and cancer. (2010, background): “In addition to influencing the neural stem/progenitor cells in the adult brain, EphB signaling also regulates the phenotype of niche cells and plays a critical role in the maintenance and self-renewal of the stem cell niche [22 ].”
Lake-front property: a unique germinal niche by the lateral ventricles of the adult brain. (2011, unknown): “to their astrocytic morphology and ultrastructure, type B cells express markers that have been associated with astroglia or neural progenitors, including astrocyte-specific glutamate transporter (GLAST), brain-lipid-binding protein (BLBP), connexin 30, and the cytoskeletal proteins glial fibrillary ”