Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The M. Forebrain subventricular zone SVZ progenitor cells give rise to glia and olfactory bulb interneurons during early postnatal life in rats. We investigated the potential of SVZ cells to alter their fate by transplanting them in a heterotypic neurogenic and gliogenic environment-the cerebellum.
Transplanted cells were examined 1 to 7 weeks and 6 months post-transplantation. Forebrain progenitors populated the cerebellum and differentiated into oligodendrocytes, cerebellar-specific Bergmann glia and velate astrocytes, and neurons. The transplanted cells that differentiated into neurons maintained an interneuronal fate: they were GABA-positive, expressed interneuronal markers, such as calretinin, and exhibited membrane properties that are characteristic of interneurons.
However, the transplanted interneurons lost the expression of the olfactory bulb transcription factors Tbr2 and Dlx1, and acquired a cerebellar-like morphology. Forebrain SVZ progenitors thus have the potential to adapt to new environment and integrate into diverse regions, and may be useful tool in transplantation strategies.
Immature central nervous system CNS cells are in general committed to glial vs. However, the differentiation into specific subtypes may be shaped by environmental signals Brustle et al. The potential for progenitor cells to produce specific cellular subtypes varies across developmental stages, and brain regions. For example, embryonic progenitor cells are generally more plastic than progenitor cells from postnatal or adult proliferative areas.
Embryonic cells can differentiate into a wide variety of cell types and subtypes upon their transplantation into different brain regions Brustle et al. Late embryonic and especially postnatal cells, however, appear to lose the potential to differentiate into region specific cell subtypes Desai and McConnell, ; Frantz and McConnell, Cells from the forebrain SVZ migrate along the anterior-posterior axis of this zone and eventually migrate into the overlying white matter and cerebral cortex, where they differentiate into astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, and also migrate along the rostral migratory stream to the olfactory bulb, where they differentiate into interneurons Doetsch and Alvarez-Buylla, ; Suzuki and Goldman, During early postnatal life, progenitors from the lateral SVZ are a heterogeneous population, consisting of lineage restricted, as well as bipotential glial progenitors Levison and Goldman, , ; Marshall et al.
