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Overview:
Neurogenesis is the process by which neurons are created. This process is most active during pre-natal development when neurogenesis is responsible for populating the growing brain. Neural stem cells (NSCs) are the self-renewing, multipotent cells that differentiate into the main phenotypes of the nervous system. These cell types include neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Neural progenitor cells (NPCs) are the progeny of stem cell division that normally undergo a limited number of replication cycles in vivo.
The terms neuronal and neural also need to be defined. Technically speaking, “neuronal” means “pertaining to neurons”, and “neural” means “pertaining to nerves, which are the cordlike bundles of fibers made up of neurons.” Since both terms ultimately are descriptive of neurons, the scientific community uses the terms "neuronal" and "neural" interchangeably. The complexity of this issue is explored from a marketing perspective within this report.
In 1992, Reynolds and Weiss were the first to isolate neural stem cells from the striatal tissue of adult mice brain tissue, including the subventricular zone, which is a neurogenic area. Since then, neural progenitor and stem cells have been isolated from various areas of the adult brain, including non-neurogenic areas like the spinal cord, and from other species, including humans. During the development of the nervous system, neural progenitor cells can either stay in the pool of proliferating undifferentiated cells or exit the cell cycle and differentiate.
Over the past few years, neuronal stem and progenitor cells have become of profound interest to the research community due to their potential to be used in drug discovery and delivery applications, as well as for tools of neural toxicology assessment. NSC transplantation also represents a ground-breaking approach for treating a range of chronic neurological diseases and acute CNS injuries, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and spinal cord injury, among other conditions.
This market report focuses on recent advances in NSC research applications, explores research priorities by market segment, highlights individual labs and end-users of neuronal stem cell research products, explores the competitive environment for NSC research products, and provides 5-year growth and trend analysis. It provides detailed guidance for companies that wish to offer strategically positioned NSC research products, including cells, kits, assays, and related media and reagents. |
