Hippocampal neurodegeneration occurs in most forms of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. There is, therefore, intense interest in unravelling the mechanisms that underlie adult neurogenesis in this region of the brain. Now, on p. 4351, Steven Kernie and colleagues report that the cholesterol carrier apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is required for the maintenance of the neural stem/progenitor cell pool in the adult dentate gyrus region of the mouse hippocampus. The researchers show that ApoE is minimally expressed within the neural progenitor pool during early dentate gyrus development, when neural stem/progenitor cells are rapidly proliferating and differentiating into neurons. However, ApoE expression is markedly upregulated in adult dentate gyrus stem/progenitor cells, which proliferate more slowly. Notably, in ApoE-deficient mice, dentate gyrus neural stem/progenitor cells continue to proliferate rapidly, which ultimately depletes the neural stem cell pool. These and other data suggest that ApoE helps to regulate hippocampal progenitor cell fate and provide a mechanism by which human APOE polymorphisms might contribute to late-onset hippocampal neurodegenerative diseases.
ApoE: a role in neurogenesis
ApoE: a role in neurogenesis. Development 15 October 2011; 138 (20): e2001. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Biologists @ 100 - join us in Liverpool in March 2025

We are excited to invite you to a unique scientific conference, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of The Company of Biologists, and bringing together our different communities. The conference will incorporate the Spring Meetings of the BSCB and the BSDB, the JEB Symposium Sensory Perception in a Changing World and a DMM programme on antimicrobial resistance. Find out more and register by 28 February 2025 to join us in March 2025 in Liverpool, UK.
Call for papers – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues

Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue – Lifelong Development: the Maintenance, Regeneration and Plasticity of Tissues. This issue will be coordinated by Guest Editors Meritxell Huch (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany) and Mansi Srivastava (Harvard University and Museum of Comparative Zoology, USA), working alongside our team of academic Editors. Submit your articles by 15 May 2025.
A case for broadening our view of mechanism in developmental biology

In this Perspective, B. Duygu Özpolat and colleagues survey researchers on their views on what it takes to infer mechanism in developmental biology. They examine what factors shape our idea of what we mean by ‘mechanism’ and suggest a path forward that embraces a broad outlook on the diversity of studies that advance knowledge in our field.
In preprints
Did you know that Development publishes perspectives on recent preprints? These articles help our readers navigate the ever-growing preprint literature. We welcome proposals for ‘In preprints’ articles, so please do get in touch if you’d like to contribute.