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World J Stem Cells. Mar 26, 2015; 7(2): 502-511
Published online Mar 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i2.502
Neural stem cells could serve as a therapeutic material for age-related neurodegenerative diseases
Sarawut Suksuphew, Parinya Noisa
Sarawut Suksuphew, School of Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima 30000, Thailand
Parinya Noisa, School of Biotechnology, Institute of Agricultural Technology, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima 3000, Thailand
Author contributions: Suksuphew S and Noisa P equally contributed to this work.
Supported by Suranaree University of Technology.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Parinya Noisa, PhD, School of Biotechnology, Institute of Agricultural Technology, Suranaree University of Technology, 111 University Avenue, Nakhon Ratchasima 3000, Thailand. p.noisa@sut.ac.th
Telephone: +66-9-26641118 m Fax: +66-9-44224154
Received: July 28, 2014
Peer-review started: July 29, 2014
First decision: September 4, 2014
Revised: October 6, 2014
Accepted: October 23, 2014
Article in press: October 27, 2014
Published online: March 26, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Neural stem cells present throughout life of human. The cells can be distinguished from differentiated progeny by acknowledging a few key features, including proliferation, self-renewal, multipotency and molecular markers. These features make neural stem cells as an essential component in the development of nervous system and in maintaining cell number of adult nervous tissues following injury and diseases. Besides conventional treatments, neural stem cells have been proposed as a promising approach to cure patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Several animal studies showed the efficiency of neural stem cells in treating age-related neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.