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Making cortex in a dish: an intrinsic mechanism of corticogenesis from embryonic stem cells

The cerebral cortex develops through the coordinated generation of dozens of neuronal <p>subtypes, but the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here we show that mouse embryonic <p>stem cells, cultured without any morphogen but in the presence of a sonic hedgehog inhibitor, <p>recapitulate in vitro the major milestones of cortical development, leading to the sequential <p>generation of a diverse repertoire of neurons that display most salient features of genuine <p>cortical pyramidal neurons. When grafted into the cerebral cortex, these neurons develop <p>patterns of axonal projections corresponding to a wide range of cortical layers, but also to <p>highly specific cortical areas, in particular visual and limbic areas, thereby demonstrating that <p>the identity of a cortical area can be specified without any influence from the brain. The <p>discovery of intrinsic corticogenesis sheds new light on the mechanisms of neuronal <p>specification, and opens new avenues for the modelling and treatment of brain diseases. <p>In a further attempt to prove the validity of this model, we have initiated the study of the <p>mechanism of action of FoxG1, a forkhead box transcription factor involved in the control of <p>cell fate decision in the developing cortex. / Doctorat en Sciences médicales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ulb.ac.be/oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210214
Date03 September 2009
CreatorsGaspard, Nicolas
ContributorsVanderhaeghen, Pierre, Louryan, Stéphane, Guillemot, François, Verfaillie, Catherine C., Brion, Jean Pierre, Blanpain, Cédric, Pandolfo, Massimo
PublisherUniversite Libre de Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles, Faculté de Médecine – Médecine, Bruxelles
Source SetsUniversité libre de Bruxelles
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:ulb-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:ulb-repo/semantics/openurl/vlink-dissertation
FormatNo full-text files

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