Capela Alexandra, Temple Sally
Center for Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY 12208, USA.
Neuron. 2002 Aug 29;35(5):865-75. doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(02)00835-8.
Adult neural stem cells are rare, and little is known about their unique characteristics, leaving their in vivo identity enigmatic. We show that Lewis X (LeX), a carbohydrate expressed by embryonic pluripotent stem cells, is made by adult mouse subventricular zone (SVZ) stem cells and shed into their environment. Only 4% of acutely isolated SVZ cells are LeX(+); this subpopulation, purified by FACS, contains the SVZ stem cells. Ependymal cells are LeX(-), and purified ependymal cells do not make neurospheres, resolving the controversial claim that these are stem cells. Thus, LeX expression by adult CNS stem cells aids their in vivo identification, allows their enrichment, and raises new questions about the role of this unusual carbohydrate in stem cell biology.
成体神经干细胞十分稀少，人们对其独特特性知之甚少，这使得它们在体内的身份成谜。我们发现，胚胎多能干细胞表达的一种碳水化合物——Lewis X（LeX），由成年小鼠脑室下区（SVZ）干细胞产生并释放到其周围环境中。急性分离的SVZ细胞中只有4%是LeX阳性；通过荧光激活细胞分选术（FACS）纯化的这一亚群包含SVZ干细胞。室管膜细胞是LeX阴性，纯化的室管膜细胞不能形成神经球，这解决了关于这些细胞是否为干细胞的争议。因此，成年中枢神经系统干细胞表达LeX有助于其在体内的鉴定，实现其富集，并引发了关于这种特殊碳水化合物在干细胞生物学中作用的新问题。
