The transcriptome of prospectively isolated adult neural stem cells

Since the discovery of adult neural stem cells, their exact identity is still under discussion. Moreover, the lack of a reproducible procedure to purify neural stem cells prospectively rather than by growing them in vitro has so far precluded their study at the transcriptome level. Here we demonstrate a novel procedure to prospectively isolate neural stem cells from the adult mouse subependymal zone on the basis of their GFAP- and prominin1-expression by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. All self-renewing, multipotent stem cells are contained in this fraction at 70% purity. The stem cell identity of these double-positive cells is further demonstrated in vivo, by using a novel split-Cre-technology for fate mapping.

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Beckervordersandforth R, Tripathi P, Ninkovic J, Bayam E, Lepier A, Stempfhuber B, Kirchhoff F, Hirrlinger J, Haslinger A, Lie DC, Beckers J, Yoder B, Irmler M, Götz M