Regulatory mechanisms of neural stem cell and strategies for therapy

Neural stem cells(NSCs) are multipotential progenitor cells that can generate neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes, the three major cell types in the central nervous system. Due to their self-renewal activities, NSCs can proliferate in an undifferentiated state in vitro, allowing them to be expanded mitotically and harvested in bulk. Recent advances in stem cell biology have led us to investigate methods for the regenerative manipulation of the damaged CNS. However, there is much that is still not known about regulatory mechanisms of the differentiation and self-renewal of NSCs. In this article, we review some of the basic notions regarding the extracellular factors and signal transduction cascades involved in the differentiation and maintenance of NSCs.