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Transcriptional Characterization of Glioma Neural Stem Cells Diva ...

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2.2 <strong>Neural</strong> <strong>Stem</strong> <strong>Cells</strong> Introduction<br />

signals from a niche are provided by soluble factors and the ECM, and neuro-<br />

spheres are spheroid structures that consist <strong>of</strong> cells producing their own ECM<br />

molecules, such as laminins, fibronectin, chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans,<br />

as well as growth factors and beta integrins, epidermal growth factor recep-<br />

tors, and cadherins. Therefore, the cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in the<br />

three-dimensional structure <strong>of</strong> neurospheres can create an environment that is<br />

more physiologically relevant than the two-dimensional one in adherent culture<br />

systems. Even so, the robustness <strong>of</strong> cell proliferation in adherent cultures is<br />

probably due to the fibronectin and laminin substrates, in that fibronectin is<br />

a ubiquitous component <strong>of</strong> various types <strong>of</strong> ECMs, and laminin was reported<br />

as one <strong>of</strong> the five different substrates regulating neural differentiation <strong>of</strong> hu-<br />

man ES cells, and precisely stimulating their expansion in a dose dependent<br />

manner [303]. In the light <strong>of</strong> the increasing evidence that astrocytes [210] and<br />

endothelial cells [354,452] might also be important components <strong>of</strong> a niche for<br />

NS cells on top <strong>of</strong> the ECM, the adherent culture system needs to be optimised<br />

in this regard.<br />

56

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