Human embryonic stem cells(hESCs)are pluripotent cells that have the ability of unlimited self-renewal and can be differentiated into different cell lineages,includ-ing neural stem(NS)cells.Diverse regulatory signaling pathways of neural stem cells differentiation have been discovered,and this will be of great benefit to uncover the mechanisms of neuronal differentiation in vivo and in vitro.However,the limitations of hESCs resource along with the religious and ethical concerns impede the pro-gress of ESCs application.Therefore,the induced pluri-potent stem cells(iPSCs)via somatic cell reprogramming have opened up another new territory for regenerative medicine.iPSCs now can be derived from a number of lin-eages of cells,and are able to differentiate into certain cell types,including neurons.Patient-specifi c iPSCs are being used in human neurodegenerative disease modeling and drug screening.Furthermore,with the development of somatic direct reprogramming or lineage reprogramming technique,a more effective approach for regenerative medicine could become a complement for iPSCs.
Metastasis is a very complicated multi-step process and accounts for the low survival rate of the cancerous patients.To metastasize,t he malignant cells must detach from the primary tumor and migrate to secondary sites in the body through either blood or lymph circulation.Macrophages appear to be directly involved in tumor progression and metastasis.However,the role of macrophages in affecting cancer metast asis has not been fully elucidated.Here,we have utilized an emerging technique,namely in vivo flow cytometry(IVFC)to study the depletion kinetics of circulating prostate cancer cells in mice and determine how depletion of macrophages by the liposome encapsulated clodronate affects the depletion kinetics.Our results show diferent depletion kinetics of PC-3 cells between the macrophagedeficient group and the control group.The number of circulating tumor cells(CTCs)in the macrophage-deficient group decreases in a slower manner compared to the control mice group.The differences in depletion kinetics indicate that the absence of macrophages facilitates the stay of prostate cancer cells in circulation.In addition,our imaging data suggest that macrophages might be able to arrest,phagocytose and digest PC-3 cells.Therefore,phagocy tosis may mainly contribute to the de-pletion kinetic diferences.The developed methods elaborated here would be useful to study the relationship between macr ophages and tumor metastasis in small animal cancer models.
The process of cortical expansion in the central nerv-ous system is a key step of mammalian brain devel-opment to ensure its physiological function.Radial glial(RG)cells are a glial cell type contributing to this pro-gress as intermediate neural progenitor cells responsi-ble for an increase in the number of cortical neurons.In this review,we discuss the current understanding of RG cells during neurogenesis and provide further in-formation on the mechanisms of neurodevelopmental diseases and stem cell-related brain tumorigenesis.Knowledge of neuronal stem cell and relative diseases will bridge benchmark research through translational studies to clinical therapeutic treatments of these dis-eases.
