Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London (UCL), UK.
Neuron. 2011 May 26;70(4):661-73. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.05.013.
Cycling glial precursors-"NG2-glia"-are abundant in the developing and mature central nervous system (CNS). During development, they generate oligodendrocytes. In culture, they can revert to a multipotent state, suggesting that they might have latent stem cell potential that could be harnessed to treat neurodegenerative disease. This hope has been subdued recently by a series of fate-mapping studies that cast NG2-glia as dedicated oligodendrocyte precursors in the healthy adult CNS-though rare, neuron production in the piriform cortex remains a possibility. Following CNS damage, the repertoire of NG2-glia expands to include Schwann cells and possibly astrocytes-but so far not neurons. This reaffirms the central role of NG2-glia in myelin repair. The realization that oligodendrocyte generation continues throughout normal adulthood has seeded the idea that myelin genesis might also be involved in neural plasticity. We review these developments, highlighting areas of current interest, contention, and speculation.
神经胶质细胞前体细胞——“NG2 胶质细胞”——在中枢神经系统（CNS）的发育和成熟过程中非常丰富。在发育过程中，它们会产生少突胶质细胞。在培养中，它们可以恢复到多能状态，这表明它们可能具有潜在的干细胞潜能，可以用于治疗神经退行性疾病。最近的一系列命运图谱研究削弱了这一希望，这些研究表明，NG2 胶质细胞在健康成年 CNS 中是专门的少突胶质前体细胞——尽管在梨状皮层中产生神经元的情况很少见，但仍有可能。中枢神经系统损伤后，NG2 胶质细胞的范围扩大，包括施万细胞和可能的星形胶质细胞——但到目前为止还没有神经元。这再次证实了 NG2 胶质细胞在髓鞘修复中的核心作用。人们认识到，少突胶质细胞的产生在整个正常成年期都在继续，这就产生了髓鞘发生也可能参与神经可塑性的想法。我们回顾了这些进展，强调了当前关注、争议和推测的领域。
