A study led by a Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon has provided the first comprehensive map of a part of the adult human brain containing astrocytes, cells known to produce growth factors critical to the regeneration of damaged neural tissue and that potentially serve as brain stem cells. The mapping study -- using special microscopes and chemical analysis of 42 samples of brain tissue taken at autopsy from seven people, and 43 samples of tissue removed with permission from living patients as part of unrelated neurosurgical procedures -- also revealed evidence of the move of cells lining the ventricles, or ependymal cells, to the same area of the brain, a discovery expected to provide further insight into the critical relationship among ependymal cell, astrocytes and potential brain stem cells.
