Progenies of NG2 glia: what do we learn from transgenic mouse models ?
Open accessAbstract
In the mammalian central nervous system, nerve-glia antigen 2 (NG2) glia are considered the fourth glial population in addition to astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and microglia. The fate of NG2 glia in vivo has been carefully studied in several transgenic mouse models using the Cre/loxP strategy. There is a clear agreement that NG2 glia mainly serve as progenitors for oligodendrocytes and a subpopulation of astrocytes mainly in the ventral forebrain, whereas the existence of a neurogenic potential of NG2 glia is lack of adequate evidence. This mini review summarizes the findings from recent studies regarding the fate of NG2 glia during development. We will highlight the age-and-region-dependent heterogeneity of the NG2 glia differentiation potential. We will also discuss putative reasons for inconsistent findings in various transgenic mouse lines of previous studies.
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Neuroplasticity is a fundamental principle of neuroscience and underlies learning, memory, and resilience to injury.
“Neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt its structural and functional properties in response to intrinsic and extrinsic stimuli, is a fundamental principle of neuroscience and underlies learning, memory, and resilience to injury [79].”
From Toward a Unified Framework in Molecular Neurobiology of Alzheimer’s Disease: Revisiting the Pathophysiological Hypotheses (2026) · cites this paper as [79]
The section on spatiotemporally controlled generation of oligodendrocytes discusses adult myelin remodeling, and the Conclusion addresses NG2 glial cell fate. Neither states that neuroplasticity underlies learning, memory, and resilience to injury; searches for those terms and for adaptive plasticity found no supporting passage in our copy. No page numbers were available for these passages. (LLM, conf=0.72)
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Cites
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“EdU incorporation experiments demonstrated that virtually all NG2 glia could be labelled by EdU after long-term treatment, indicating that all NG2 glia underwent proliferation (Clarke et al., 2012; Young et al., 2013).”
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Age-dependent fate and lineage restriction of single NG2 cells
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Hein, Z. M., Karikalan, B., Gopalakrishna, P. K., Dhevi, K., Alkatiri, A., Hussan, F., Mohd Moklas, M. A., Jagadeesan, S., Che Ramli, M. D., Che Mohd Nassir, C. M. N., et al. (2026) · Molecular Neurobiology · doi:10.1007/s12035-025-05602-0 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
- Authors
- Huang, W., Guo, Q., & Scheller, A.
- Affiliations
- Saarland University (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Huang, Wenhui
- Venue
- Neural Regeneration Research
- Published
- 2021
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 43
- ISSN
- 1673-5374 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7818854
- OpenAlex
- W3048505733
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2021: 6
- FWCI
- 0.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-sa
- Locations
- Neural Regeneration Research (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Genetics › Glioma Diagnosis and Treatment
- Keywords
- NG2 glia, oligodendrocyte progenitors, neurogenesis, glial differentiation, central nervous system development, ventral forebrain, transgenic mouse model, Cre-loxP system, lineage tracing
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