La Rosa Chiara, Parolisi Roberta, Bonfanti Luca
Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi, Orbassano, Italy.
Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Front Neurosci. 2020 Feb 4;14:75. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2020.00075. eCollection 2020.
Brain structural plasticity is an extraordinary tool that allows the mature brain to adapt to environmental changes, to learn, to repair itself after lesions or disease, and to slow aging. A long history of neuroscience research led to fascinating discoveries of different types of plasticity, involving changes in the genetically determined structure of nervous tissue, up to the ultimate dream of neuronal replacement: a stem cell-driven "adult neurogenesis" (AN). Yet, this road does not seem a straight one, since mutable dogmas, conflicting results and conflicting interpretations continue to warm the field. As a result, after more than 10,000 papers published on AN, we still do not know its time course, rate or features with respect to other kinds of structural plasticity in our brain. The solution does not appear to be behind the next curve, as differences among mammals reveal a very complex landscape that cannot be easily understood from rodents models alone. By considering evolutionary aspects, some pitfalls in the interpretation of cell markers, and a novel population of undifferentiated cells that are not newly generated [immature neurons (INs)], we address some conflicting results and controversies in order to find the right road forward. We suggest that considering plasticity in a comparative framework might help assemble the evolutionary, anatomical and functional pieces of a very complex biological process with extraordinary translational potential.
脑结构可塑性是一种非凡的工具，它能使成熟的大脑适应环境变化、学习、在损伤或疾病后自我修复以及延缓衰老。神经科学的悠久研究历史带来了关于不同类型可塑性的迷人发现，这些发现涉及神经组织基因决定结构的变化，直至神经元替代的终极梦想：干细胞驱动的“成年神经发生”（AN）。然而，这条路似乎并不平坦，因为不断变化的教条、相互矛盾的结果和相互矛盾的解释持续使该领域热度不减。因此，在发表了一万多篇关于成年神经发生的论文之后，我们仍然不清楚它相对于大脑中其他类型结构可塑性的时间进程、速率或特征。解决方案似乎并不在下一个转折点之后，因为哺乳动物之间的差异揭示了一个非常复杂的局面，仅从啮齿动物模型很难轻易理解。通过考虑进化方面、细胞标志物解释中的一些陷阱以及一群并非新生成的未分化细胞[未成熟神经元（INs）]，我们解决了一些相互矛盾的结果和争议，以便找到前进的正确道路。我们认为，在比较框架下考虑可塑性可能有助于将一个具有非凡转化潜力的非常复杂的生物学过程的进化、解剖和功能部分整合起来。
