Attempts to Mobilize Oligodendrocyte Progenitors Essay

The lineage of rodent oligodendrocyte has been very well characterized in vitro studies. In fact, the oligodendrocyte formation is very crucial in embryogenesis as well as in the postnatal development of the individual. To be more specific, these cells are essential for myelinating neuronal axons in the central nervous system and thus allowing fast conduction of electric impulses along the neurve fibres. Oligodendrocyte death leads to demyelination process, a pathological feature of neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS), acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) or extrapontine myelinolysis (EPM) (Love S., 2006). Oligodendrocyte progenitors (OPCs) remyelinate damaged nerve fibres in the adult CNS. However, this†¦show more content†¦OPCs and mature oligodendrocytes do not differ only by their marker expression, but also by their morphology. Immature OPCs have big oval cell bodies with unbranched fine processes growing circularly, whereas mature oligodendrocytes have small cell bodies with branched processes growing longitudinally along axons (Butt AM. and Ransom BR., 1993). Initially, scientists thought that OPCs form homogeneous and consistent population of cells. However, a deeper look at this issue has proposed a new theory explaining that the composition of OPCs varies according to their function, gene expression, proliferation rates, electrical properties and differentiation ability (Chittajallu R. et al., 2004; Lin G. et al., 2009; Rivers LE. et al., 2008). For instance, NG2+ cells residing in the motor cortex and corpus callosum of the mouse differentiate only to oligodendrocyte lineage postnatally. However, OPCs present in the anterior piriform cortex can generate also pyramidal neurons (Clarke LE. et al., 2012; Guo F. et al., 2010). Nevertheless, late pre-progenitor cells have similar properties as stem cells. We can culture NG2 positive cells present in the subventricular zone (SVZ) with the fetal calf serum (FCS), cytokines and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and convert them back to their stem cell state. We can then transdifferentiate these multipotent cells to other neural