Adult neural stem cells derived from rat hippocampus cultured on a feeder layer of hippocampal astrocytes differentiated into neurons that form functional synaptic connections. These adult stem cells were infected with a retrovirus to express synaptophysin-GFP for visulization of synaptic vesicles (green). Electron microscopy (insert) revealed typical presynaptic and post-synaptic structures. Electrophysiological recordings (red) showed spontaneous synaptic transmission between neuronal progeny of adult neural stem cells. For details, please see the article by Song et. al., Nature Neuroscience, 2002, pp438-445.
© 2005 Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine