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Neural stem cell pools in the vertebrate adult brain: Homeostasis from cell‐autonomous decisions or community rules?
Author(s) -
Dray Nicolas,
ThanTrong Emmanuel,
BallyCuif Laure
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.202000228
Subject(s) - stem cell , biology , neural stem cell , zebrafish , neuroscience , population , adult stem cell , vertebrate , homeostasis , regeneration (biology) , microbiology and biotechnology , niche , cellular differentiation , ecology , genetics , demography , sociology , gene
Adult stem cell populations must coordinate their own maintenance with the generation of differentiated cell types to sustain organ physiology, in a spatially controlled manner and over long periods. Quantitative analyses of clonal dynamics have revealed that, in epithelia, homeostasis is achieved at the population rather than at the single stem cell level, suggesting that feedback mechanisms coordinate stem cell maintenance and progeny generation. In the central nervous system, however, little is known of the possible community processes underlying neural stem cell maintenance. Recent work, in part based on intravital imaging made possible in the adult zebrafish, conclusively highlights that homeostasis in neural stem cell pools may rely on population asymmetry and long‐term spatiotemporal coordination of neural stem cell states and fates. These results suggest that neural stem cell assemblies in the vertebrate brain behave as self‐organized systems, such that the stem cells themselves generate their own intrinsic niche.