Toxicology Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Toxicology, including details on forensic toxicology, carcinogenicity, assays.

Novel neural stem cell systems.

Conti L, Cattaneo E, Papadimou E

University of Milano, Department of Pharmacological Sciences and Center for Stem Cell Research, Via Balzaretti 9, 20133 Milano, Italy. Luciano.Conti@unimi.it

Neural stem cells are cells that can self-renew ad infinitum and have the potential to generate immature precursors and mature cells of both neuronal and glial lineages. During recent years, neural stem cells gained attention as major candidates for regenerative and cell replacement therapies in various pathological brain conditions; however, they have recently revealed unforeseen valuable characters. Here the authors review on the state of the field, with a particular focus on the most recent results on the optimisation of neural stem cells isolation/derivation and homogeneous long-term expansion, highlighting advantages of this resource and outlining their potential applications. Bearing in mind that stem-cell based therapies for the diseased and injured brain are still far from being a reality, these cells have been recently opened up to valuable exploitation for disease modelling, drug discovery and toxicology tests as short-term applications.

Published 15 January 2008 in Expert Opin Biol Ther, 8(2): 153-60.
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