Cancer stem cells obtained from normal brain stem cells

Current cell replacement therapy strategies include transplantation of stem cells for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's. While ES cells besides being ethically questionable have been shown to produce malignant teratomas upon transplantation, adult stem cells have the advantage of being free of ethic concerns and hitherto were thought of not being tumorigenic. Here, we show that in vitro expansion of adult neural stem and progenitor cells harbours the risk of inducing genetic instability resulting in tumorigenic cells. We obtained stem and progenitor cells from the subventricular zone of Wistar rats…