Structural and functional analysis of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans in the neural stem cell niche.

The stem cell niche plays an important role for the maintenance and differentiation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs). It is composed of distinct cell types that influence NSCPs by the release of paracrine factors, and a specialized extracellular matrix that structures the NSPC environment. During the past years, several components of the neural stem cell (NSC) niche could be deciphered on the molecular level. One prominent constituent is the tenascin-C (Tnc) glycoprotein and its isoforms that intervene in NSPC proliferation and differentiation. Distinct chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) associate with Tnc in the niche territory and we could show that these have functional connotations in the stem cell compartment in their own rights. In this chapter, we give an account of the tools and methods we developed to unravel the structures and functions of CSPGs in the NSC niche.