News Releases & Research Results A study reveals how lysosomes control adult neural stem cells

The study was led by Assistant Professor Taeko Kobayashi and Professor Ryoichiro Kageyama of Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University.

• The authors examined the protein stability of neural stem cells to identify mechanisms that control protein degradation in quiescent neural stem cells.
• They demonstrated that (1) the level of lysosomes (intracellular organelles that contain a variety of digestive enzymes) and their activity increase when proliferating neural stem cells enter quiescence, (2) quiescent neural stem cells degrade membrane receptors involved in proliferation more rapidly than proliferating cells, and (3) inhibition of lysosomal activity results in neural stem cells exiting from quiescence while artificial elevation of lysosomal activity induces neural stem cells to stop proliferating and enter quiescence.
• The findings of the study may help develop methods aimed to control neural stem cells in the brain.

This research project was supported by the AMED Advanced Research & Development Programs for Medical Innovation (AMED-CREST).

The result of study was published online in Nature Communications on November 29.