Identifying neural progenitor cells in the adult brain

Abstract

There is incontrovertible evidence that neural progenitor cells (NPC) are found in the adult brain. The ability to identify and track NPC in the adult brain is of considerable importance if the properties of these cells are to be harnessed as potential therapies for degenerative brain disorders. The most commonly used approach of identifying these NPC in experimental studies, bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labelling, is outlined in this chapter. Immunohistochemical protocols for detecting endogenous and exogenous (introduced via transplantation) NPC in fresh-frozen and paraffin wax embedded brain tissue are described. Advice on how to label these NPC is also offered and multi-label fluorescence immunochemical staining approaches to determine the differentiation fate of NPC are described. © 2009 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.