Arnold R. Kriegstein, M.D., Ph.D.
	Neural Stem Cells and Embryonic Cortical Development
	Email: kriegsteina@stemcell.ucsf.edu
Selected Publications Complete Publications

Our lab is using electrophysiological, optical recording, and molecular biological approaches to study intercellular signaling and proliferation in the embryonic cerebral cortex during fetal stages of development. Findings from the laboratory reveal that embryonic neuronal stem cells appear to be highly interactive, communicating with each other directly through gap junction channels and responding to their local environment through specific neurotransmitter receptors.

In addition, we recently demonstrated that radial glial cells, present only in the embryonic and fetal developing brain and long thought to simply guide embryonic nerve cells during migration, are neuronal stem cells in the developing brain. We found that radial glial cells divide to produce nerve cells that often climb along their parent radial glial cells to reach the developing cerebral cortex. This finding suggests that a radial glial 'mother' cell generates and guides daughter neurons.

More recently, we have found a second nerve cell precursor in the embryonic brain that undergoes a different mode of cell division in a distinct proliferative zone. This suggests new mechanisms for the generation of cell diversity in the developing cortex. The identification of the radial glial cell as a key neuronal stem cell in the developing brain has helped shift attention to the role of glial cells as neuronal stem cells in the adult brain, and has the potential to lead to innovative therapies aimed treating diseases of brain injury.

Selected Publications

Noctor, S.C., Flint, A.C., Weissman, T.A., Dammerman, R.S., & Kriegstein, A.R., Neurons derived from radial glial cells establish radial units in neocortex, Nature , 409:714-20, 2001.

Noctor, S. C., Martínez-Cerdeño, V, Ivic, L, Kriegstein, A. R., Cortical neurons arise in symmetric and asymmetric division zones and migrate through specific phases, Nature Neuroscience , 7:136-44, 2004.

Weissman T.A., Riquelme P.A., Ivic L., Flint A.C., Kriegstein, A.R., Calcium waves propagate through radial glial cells and modulate proliferation in the developing neocortex, Neuron , 43:647-61, 2004.

Kriegstein AR, Noctor SC, Martinez-Cerdeno. Patterns of neural stem and progenitor cell division may underlie evolutionary cortical expansion. Nat Rev Neuroscience 2006; 7(11):883-90.

Photo by Christine Jegen

Information last updated April 2007