Substrate stress relaxation regulates neural stem cell fate commitment

Abstract

Adult neural stem cells (NSCs) reside in the dentate gyrus of the adult hippocampus, and their ability to generate neurons and glia is known to play a role learning and memory. In addition, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease are known to be caused by loss of neurons and glial cells. NSCs are thus widely seen as an attractive cell source for cell replacement therapies targeted at neurodegenerative diseases. We previously showed that NSCs fate commitment towards a neuronal or glial lineage is strongly influenced by mechanical cues such as ECM stiffness, a property of elastic bodies.