It is becoming clear that not only in the embryonic brain, but also in the postnatal brain, neural stem cells exist in limited areas and continuously produce new neurons and glial cells, which are involved in brain development and homeostasis. It has also become clear that when the brain is injured, cell proliferation in neurogenic regions increases and neurons lost due to brain injury can be regenerated. In collaboration with other research divisions of NIPS, our group has been elucidating the migration mechanisms of newborn neurons and glial cells, as well as the phagocytosis mechanism of glial cells. In this research division, we aim to elucidate the mechanisms and significance of neogenesis of neurons and glial cells in the postnatal brain using normal animals and animal models of brain injury, and to use these findings to develop new therapeutic strategies.
Fig.１. Glial cells phagocytosing synapses were observed by SBF-SEM at NIPS. Microglial prosess (green) phagocytose neuronal spines (blue) (Kurematsu et al., 2022).
Fig.2. Growth cone of migrating neurons(green) in the injured brain (Nakajima et al., 2024).
