Zebrafish, in contrast to humans, have outstanding regenerative capacities: If brain cells are lost due to illness or injury, they will easily regrow from so-called progenitor cells. With sophisticated methods, researchers from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) have now characterized these progenitor cells in great detail and determined that they consist of eight different sub-populations. In a fish model of amyloid accumulation (a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease), only some of these populations increased proliferation to restore lost cells. Characterizing the molecular basis of these progenitor's proliferative abilities will help identify new candidate target molecules for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease in humans. The research is published in Cell Reports.
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