This article is part of the supplement: 49th Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida .

Oral presentation

The importance of cerebrospinal fluid on neural cell proliferation in developing chick cerebral cortex

Farhad Mashayekhi and Zivar Salehi

Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Guilan University, Namjoo St., PoBox 1914, Rasht, Iran

author email corresponding author email

from 49th Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida
Barcelona, Spain. 29 June – 2 July 2005

Cerebrospinal Fluid Research 2005, 2(Suppl 1):S7doi:10.1186/1743-8454-2-S1-S7

Published:	30 December 2005

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

A key event in the development of mammalian cerebral cortex is the generation and differentiation of neuronal population during embryonic life. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is produced by the choroid plexuses within the ventricles of the brain. The CSF circulates in a regular manner after the ventricular system and the choroids plexuses have developed, and the foramina in the 4^th ventricle have opened to enable it to carry chemical information. CSF flows through the ventricular system passing over all regions of germinal activity. The central nervous system (CNS) of vertebrates originates from neuroepithelial cells located within the embryonic neural tube. Several mitogenic and trophic factors have been implicated in the processes of cortical cell proliferation and differentiation. These include fibroblast growth factor (FGF), insulin growth factor (IGF) and other neurotrophic factors. FGF promotes the proliferation of stem cells isolated from the brain and direct them toward specific fates. Stem cells are highly plastic, with their proliferation and differentiation potential dependent on different growth factor treatments. It was shown in vitro that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) have positive effects in promoting neural progenitor cell differentiation towards the dopaminergic phenotype. In the subset of progenitor cells, FGF2 is necessary in early G1 to promote commitment to a subsequent cell cycle.