| 1. |
- Couillard-Despres, Sebastien, et al.
(author)
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Doublecortin expression levels in adult brain reflect neurogenesis.
- 2005
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In: The European journal of neuroscience. - : Wiley. - 0953-816X .- 1460-9568. ; 21:1, s. 1-14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Progress in the field of neurogenesis is currently limited by the lack of tools enabling fast and quantitative analysis of neurogenesis in the adult brain. Doublecortin (DCX) has recently been used as a marker for neurogenesis. However, it was not clear whether DCX could be used to assess modulations occurring in the rate of neurogenesis in the adult mammalian central nervous system following lesioning or stimulatory factors. Using two paradigms increasing neurogenesis levels (physical activity and epileptic seizures), we demonstrate that quantification of DCX-expressing cells allows for an accurate measurement of modulations in the rate of adult neurogenesis. Importantly, we excluded induction of DCX expression during physiological or reactive gliogenesis and excluded also DCX re-expression during regenerative axonal growth. Our data validate DCX as a reliable and specific marker that reflects levels of adult neurogenesis and its modulation. We demonstrate that DCX is a valuable alternative to techniques currently used to measure the levels of neurogenesis. Importantly, in contrast to conventional techniques, analysis of neurogenesis through the detection of DCX does not require in vivo labelling of proliferating cells, thereby opening new avenues for the study of human neurogenesis under normal and pathological conditions.
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| 2. |
- Draganski, Bogdan, et al.
(author)
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Temporal and spatial dynamics of brain structure changes during extensive learning.
- 2006
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In: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. - 1529-2401. ; 26:23, s. 6314-7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The current view regarding human long-term memory as an active process of encoding and retrieval includes a highly specific learning-induced functional plasticity in a network of multiple memory systems. Voxel-based morphometry was used to detect possible structural brain changes associated with learning. Magnetic resonance images were obtained at three different time points while medical students learned for their medical examination. During the learning period, the gray matter increased significantly in the posterior and lateral parietal cortex bilaterally. These structural changes did not change significantly toward the third scan during the semester break 3 months after the exam. The posterior hippocampus showed a different pattern over time: the initial increase in gray matter during the learning period was even more pronounced toward the third time point. These results indicate that the acquisition of a great amount of highly abstract information may be related to a particular pattern of structural gray matter changes in particular brain areas.
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| 3. |
- Kuhn, Hans-Georg, 1961, et al.
(author)
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Increased generation of granule cells in adult Bcl-2-overexpressing mice: a role for cell death during continued hippocampal neurogenesis
- 2005
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In: European Journal of Neuroscience. - : Wiley. - 0953-816X .- 1460-9568. ; 22:8, s. 1907-1915
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Programmed cell death is an important mechanism during brain development in order to control neuronal cell numbers and to correctly form neuronal circuitries. Programmed cell death is also present in neurogenic regions of the adult brain, and a significant portion of the adult-born cells is eliminated during the first months of maturation. We here address the question whether overexpression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 would improve the survival of neural progenitor cells and, as a consequence, increase neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus. Transgenic animals, which express human Bcl-2 under the neuron-specific enolase promoter (NSE-huBcl-2), show a significant reduction of apoptotic cells in the hippocampal granule cell layer to about half of the wild-type level. These apoptotic cells are almost exclusively found in the zone of hippocampal progenitor activity and frequently co-label with the neuronal progenitor marker doublecortin (DCX). The rate of adult neurogenesis is doubled in the dentate gyrus of Bcl-2-overexpressing mice as demonstrated by quantification of progenitor cells using DCX and new neurons using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)/neuronal nuclei antigen (NeuN) double-labelling. The effect of Bcl-2 is limited to the late phase of progenitor maturation, as proliferation and early-phase progenitor cells were not affected. The increased level of neurogenesis leads to a significantly higher total number of granule cells in the dentate gyrus. These results underline the importance of developmental cell death during neurogenesis in the adult brain.
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| 4. |
- Torner, Luz, et al.
(author)
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Prolactin prevents chronic stress-induced decrease of adult hippocampal neurogenesis and promotes neuronal fate.
- 2009
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In: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. - 1529-2401. ; 29:6, s. 1826-33
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Chronic exposure to stress results in a reduction of hippocampal neurogenesis and of hippocampal volume. We examined whether prolactin (PRL), a regulator of the stress response and stimulator of neurogenesis in the subventricular zone, influences neurogenesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) of chronically stressed adult C57BL/6 male mice. Chronically stressed (4 h daily immobilization for 21 d) or nonstressed mice were treated with either ovine PRL or vehicle between days 1-14. BrdU was injected daily between days 1-7 to evaluate cell survival and fate, or twice on day 21 to evaluate cell proliferation. Hippocampal cell proliferation was unchanged by either stress exposure or PRL at the end of the treatments. In contrast, the number of cells in the DG that incorporated BrdU during the first phase of the experiment and survived to the end of the experiment was decreased in vehicle-treated stressed mice compared with PRL- or vehicle-treated nonstressed control mice. Stressed animals receiving PRL had significantly more BrdU-labeled cells than vehicle-treated stressed mice at this time point. Cell fate analysis revealed a higher percentage of neurons in PRL- compared with vehicle-treated stressed mice. The results demonstrate that PRL protects neurogenesis in the DG of chronically stressed mice and promotes neuronal fate.
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| 5. |
- Winner, Beate, et al.
(author)
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Dopaminergic lesion enhances growth factor-induced striatal neuroblast migration.
- 2008
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In: Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0022-3069 .- 1554-6578. ; 67:2, s. 105-16
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Adult neurogenesis persists in the subventricular zone and is decreased in Parkinson disease (PD). The therapeutic potential of neurogenesis in PD requires understanding of mechanisms of 1) neural stem cell generation; 2) their guidance to the lesion site; and 3) the environment that enables neuronal differentiation, survival, and functional integration. We examined the combined intraventricular infusion of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) in a 6-hydroxydopamine-induced rodent model of PD. Epidermal growth factor and FGF-2 induced a massive increase in cell proliferation and in numbers of doublecortin-expressing neuroblasts in the subventricular zone. These growth factors also increased dopaminergic neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb and promoted the migration of newly generated neuroblasts from the subventricular zone into the adjacent striatum. The effects of EGF and FGF-2 were present in unlesioned animals but were dramatically enhanced in 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned animals.These findings suggest that newly generated neuroblasts may be redirected to the region of dopaminergic deficit, and that EGF and FGF-2 can enhance dopaminergic neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb but not in the striatum. Similar mechanisms may be involved in the increased numbers of dopaminergic neurons observed in the olfactory bulbs of PD patients and their functional olfactory deficits.
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| 6. |
- Winner, Beate, et al.
(author)
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Striatal deafferentation increases dopaminergic neurogenesis in the adult olfactory bulb.
- 2006
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In: Experimental neurology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0014-4886. ; 197:1, s. 113-21
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Dopaminergic loss is known to be one of the major hallmarks of Parkinson disease (PD). In addition to its function as a neurotransmitter, dopamine plays significant roles in developmental and adult neurogenesis. Both dopaminergic deafferentation and stimulation modulate proliferation in the subventricular zone (SVZ)/olfactory bulb system as well as in the hippocampus. Here, we study the impact of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions to the medial forebrain bundle on proliferation and neuronal differentiation of newly generated cells in the SVZ/olfactory bulb axis in adult rats. Proliferation in the SVZ decreased significantly after dopaminergic deafferentation. However, the number of neural progenitor cells expressing the proneuronal cell fate determinant Pax-6 increased in the SVZ. Survival and quantitative cell fate analysis of newly generated cells revealed that 6-OHDA lesions induced opposite effects in the two different regions of neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb: a transient decrease in the granule cell layer contrasts to a sustained increase of newly generated neurons in the glomerular layer. These data point towards a shift in the ratio of newly generated interneurons in the olfactory bulb layers. Dopaminergic neurogenesis in the glomerular layer tripled after lesioning and consistent with this finding, the total number of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive cells increased. Thus, loss of dopaminergic input to the SVZ led to a distinct cell fate decision towards stimulation of dopaminergic neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb glomerular layer. This study supports the accumulating evidence that neurotransmitters play a crucial role in determining survival and differentiation of newly generated neurons.
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