Researchers have identified a distinct group of early-stage linkurl:neural stem cells,;http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/4/1/42/1 called neural rosette cells, that can form more types of neural cells than typical neural stem cells, reports a study published today (January 14) in linkurl:__Genes & Development__.;http://www.genesdev.org As neural stem cells develop from embryonic stem cells, they form a radial pattern of epithelial cells, called rosettes. Scientists had seen the morphology before, but "nobody understood rosette cells," linkurl:Lorenz Studer;http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/10920.cfm at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the lead investigator on the study, told __The Scientist__. Studer and his colleagues isolated neural rosette cells and profiled them genetically, finding an expression pattern distinct from linkurl:neural stem cells.;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/23276 But the most exciting quality of rosette cells is that it appears they can develop into any type of neural cell, representing a population that behaves more like linkurl:true stem cells.;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/14321 Whereas neural stem cells in culture typically only differentiate into GABA-ergic or glutamatergic...
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