Glial scar brain and spinal cord. FGF2 has also been shown to increase astrocyte proliferation "in vitro". Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) is a cytosolic protein that is not secreted. CNTF has been shown to promote the survival of neuronal cultures "in vitro", and it can also act as a differentiator and trophic factor on glial cells. Further, CNTF has been previously shown to affect the differentiation of glial precursor cells "in vitro"; however, the influence of CNTF in the "in vivo" setting has only recently been determined. Winter "et al." used CNTF over-expressing transgenic mice as well as wildtype controls that had
Perisynaptic schwann cells research conducted in the past two decades. The origin of Perisynaptic (Terminal) Schwann Cells was largely under question in the 1960s as there were arguments on whether the cells were of epithelial or glial descent, but the development of PSCs has been linked to Neural crest origin. As described above, PSCs are a type of non-myelinating Schwann cell, which develop from neural crest cells. The general series of developmental events can be summarized as this: Neural Crest cells develop into Schwann cell precursors which further develop into Immature Schwann cells which then differentiate into Myelinating Schwann cells and non-Myelinating schwann