Remember this: Sox1 marks neural stem cells in the hippocampus

Most folks think that our brains don’t produce any more neurons after we’re born, but thankfully they do!  A small subset of stem cells within the hippocampus gives rise to neurons in a region of the brain believed to be associated with learning and memory, and a recent paper describes the self-renewal properties and potential of these stem cells, and identifies the use of Sox1 as a marker for them.

The production of neurons continues throughout adulthood from two sources in the brain—from radial astrocytes in the subgranular zone (SGZ) in the hippocampus and along the lateral walls of the lateral ventricles in the ventricular-subventricular zone (V-SVZ).  Neural stem cells (NSCs) within the SGZ divide to produce mature neurons in the granular layer of the hippocampus, which has been suggested to play a role in learning and memory.  A recent paper in Development describes the potential of this NSC population, and identifies markers that can be used to identify these stem cells.  The transcription factor Sox1 is found throughout early central nervous system development, and according to Venere and colleagues, is found in the NSC population of radial astrocytes.  By lineage tracing these Sox1-positive radial astrocytes, Venere and colleagues found that these NSCs give rise to most, if not all, granular neurons and a small number of hilar astrocytes.  The number of Sox1-positive radial astrocytes declines with age, consistent with a decrease in neurogenesis.  Despite the decline in number, these cells remain transcriptionally active.  In the images above, Sox1 (green) is found in a subset of radial astrocytes (blue).  Sox1, Sox2 (red), and the radial astrocyte marker GFAP (blue) are all found in one subset of cells (arrowheads), while another subset of non-radial progenitor cells has both Sox1 and Sox2 markers (arrows).  Sox2 is known to have overlapping, but distinct, expression with Sox1 during development.

For a more general description of this image, see my imaging blog within EuroStemCell, the European stem cell portal.

Venere, M., Han, Y., Bell, R., Song, J., Alvarez-Buylla, A., & Blelloch, R. (2012). Sox1 marks an activated neural stem/progenitor cell in the hippocampus Development, 139 (21), 3938-3949 DOI: 10.1242/dev.081133

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