Leonardo Ortiz-López, Jorge Julio González-Olvera, Nelly Maritza Vega-Rivera, Maria García-Anaya, Ana Karen Carapia-Hernández, Julio César Velázquez-Escobar, Gerardo Bernabé Ramírez-Rodríguez
Neurogenesis constitutively occurs in the olfactory epithelium of mammals, including humans. The fact that new neurons in the adult olfactory epithelium derive from resident neural stem/progenitor cells suggests a potential use for these cells in studies of neural diseases, as well as in neuronal cell replacement therapies. In this regard, some studies have proposed that the human olfactory epithelium is a source of neural stem/progenitor cells for autologous transplantation. Although these potential applications are interesting, it is important to understand the cell biology and/or whether human neural stem/progenitor cells in the olfactory epithelium sense external signals, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), that is also found in other pro-neurogenic microenvironments...
July 4, 2017: Neuroscience