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Cardozo, David

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Cardozo

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Cardozo, David
Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.b1d37368-851c-43dc-9900-8133a4d61212

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    The Isolation, Differentiation, and Survival In Vivo of Multipotent Cells from the Postnatal Rat filum terminale
    (Public Library of Science, 2013) Jha, Ruchira Menka; Chrenek, Ryan; Magnotti, Laura; Cardozo, David
    Neural stem cells (NSCs) are undifferentiated cells in the central nervous system (CNS) that are capable of self-renewal and can be induced to differentiate into neurons and glia. Current sources of mammalian NSCs are confined to regions of the CNS that are critical to normal function and surgically difficult to access, which limits their therapeutic potential in human disease. We have found that the filum terminale (FT), a previously unexplored, expendable, and easily accessible tissue at the caudal end of the spinal cord, is a source of multipotent cells in postnatal rats and humans. In this study, we used a rat model to isolate and characterize the potential of these cells. Neurospheres derived from the rat FT are amenable to in vitro expansion in the presence of a combination of growth factors. These proliferating, FT-derived cells formed neurospheres that could be induced to differentiate into neural progenitor cells, neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes by exposure to serum and/or adhesive substrates. Through directed differentiation using sonic hedgehog and retinoic acid in combination with various neurotrophic factors, FT-derived neurospheres generated motor neurons that were capable of forming neuromuscular junctions in vitro. In addition, FT-derived progenitors that were injected into chick embryos survived and could differentiate into both neurons and glia in vivo.
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    Characterization of the Filum terminale as a neural progenitor cell niche in both rats and humans
    (John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2016) Chrenek, Ryan; Magnotti, Laura; Herrera, Gabriella; Jha, Ruchira M.; Cardozo, David
    Abstract Neural stem cells (NSCs) reside in a unique microenvironment within the central nervous system (CNS) called the NSC niche. Although they are relatively rare, niches have been previously characterized in both the brain and spinal cord of adult animals. Recently, another potential NSC niche has been identified in the filum terminale (FT), which is a thin band of tissue at the caudal end of the spinal cord. While previous studies have demonstrated that NSCs can be isolated from the FT, the in vivo architecture of this tissue and its relation to other NSC niches in the CNS has not yet been established. In this article we report a histological analysis of the FT NSC niche in postnatal rats and humans. Immunohistochemical characterization reveals that the FT is mitotically active and its cells express similar markers to those in other CNS niches. In addition, the organization of the FT most closely resembles that of the adult spinal cord niche. J. Comp. Neurol. 525:661–675, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.