Stroke induces gene profile changes associated with neurogenesis and angiogenesis in adult subventricular zone progenitor cells.

Neural progenitor cells in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the lateral ventricular wall give rise to new neurons throughout rodent life. Ischemic stroke induces angiogenesis and neurogenesis. Using laser capture microdissection (LCM) in combination with microarrays containing approximately 400 known genes associated with stem cells and angiogenesis, we investigated gene profiles of SVZ cells in the adult mouse subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion. Our data revealed that nonstroke SVZ cells expressed sets of genes that are important for neural progenitor cell proliferation, differentiation, and migration. In addition, stroke SVZ cells expressed many genes involved in neurogenesis during embryonic development but were not detected in nonstroke SVZ cells. Stroke upregulated genes were verified by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and immunostaining. These data indicate that adult SVZ cells recapture embryonic molecular signals after stroke and provide insight into the molecular mechanisms, which regulate the biological function of neural progenitor cells in the SVZ of adult rodent brain under physiological and stroke conditions.