Mitochondrial DNA replication is essential for neurogenesis but not gliogenesis in fetal neural stem cells.

Mitochondria are unique organelles that have their own genome (mtDNA) and perform various pivotal functions within a cell. Recently, evidence has highlighted the role of mitochondria in the process of stem cell differentiation, including differentiation of neural stem cells (NSCs). Here we studied the importance of mtDNA function in the early differentiation process of NSCs in two cell culture models: the CGR8-NS cell line that was derived from embryonic stem cells by a lineage selection technique, and primary NSCs that were isolated from embryonic day 14 mouse fetal forebrain.