In a new study, researchers from the University of Zurich successfully tracked individual stem cells and their neuron offspring for the first time in a complete adult brain, which put forward new insights into how new neurons emerge in human brain. Related research results are published in the Journal of Science.
At the end of embryonic development, researchers once thought that the new nerve cells gradually disappeared. However, recent research shows that the adult brain can produce new nerve cells throughout the whole life. One of the brain regions where this happens is the hippocampus, that is, a brain structure that determines a variety of learning and memory types, which also determines what is remembered and what is forgotten.
In this new study, Sebastian Jessberger, professor at the Institute of Brain Research at the University of Zurich, with his team, demonstrating the process of neural stem cell differentiation and the integration of newborn neurons for the first time in the hippocampus of adult mice. The researchers performed in vivo two-photon imaging and genetic labeling of neural stem cells to observe stem cell division and to track new neural cell maturation for up to two months. By observing these cells for a period of time, they demonstrated that most stem cells divide only a few rounds before they mature into neurons. These results explain why the number of new cells has dropped dramatically with age.
‘In the past it was deemed technically impossible to follow single cell stem cells in the brain over time given the deep localization of the hippocampus in the brain’, said Jessberger. This new study provided new ideas for long-standing problems in the field. But these researchers also claimed that this is just the beginning of many experiments aimed at understanding how the human brain forms new nerve cells throughout life. Jessberger also said, ‘In the future, we hope that we will be able to use neural stem cells for brain repair, such as for the treatment of cognitive aging, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease or major depression.’ We will look forward to the further development and application of this new research.