Glial Cell Lineages in the Rat Optic Nerve
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
Remarkably little is known about cell lineages in the vertebrate CNS. Although it is thought that the neuroepithelial cells of the neural tube give rise to the neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and ependymal cells that largely constitute the CNS (Jacobson 1978), it is not known what determines the choice of differentiation pathway taken by individual neuroepithelial cells or when these choices are made. Three problems have impeded progress: (1) the complexity of the vertebrate CNS, (2) its relative inaccessibility for experimental manipulation (especially in mammals), and (3) uncertainties involved in distinguishing one immature cell type from another by morphological criteria.
We have combined three strategies to help overcome these problems: First, we have studied the simplest part of the CNS, the optic nerve, which contains astrocytes and oligodendrocytes but no ependymal cells or neurons. Second, we have used dissociated cell cultures so that we can control the cellular and fluid environment...
