Tracing glial cell lineages in the mammalian forebrain

Abstract

Astrocytes and oligodendrocytes emerge in late gestational and early post‐natal development in the mammalian CNS. The nature, and number, of progenitors for each glial type is a central question. This review will focus upon several unresolved issues relating to glial cell lineages and describe new methods to try to illuminate these issues further: (1) How can developmental patterns by which immature neuroectodermal cells give rise to classes of neurons and glia be understood in the context of lineage? (2) What are the lineage relationships among the various cell classes, how many glial lineages are there in the developing CNS, and how can recent methods of clonal analysis using stable markers be used to clarify lineage patterns? (3) Do patterns of gliogenesis vary in different regions of the CNS? (4) How do patterns of gliogenesis observed in vitro relate to those in vivo?.