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Where in the adult human brain were neural stem cells first discovered?
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stem cell
Stem cells of neural and hematopoietic origin have tremendous potential in the development of therapies for certain diseases, such as diabetes and Parkinson disease. Neural stem cells occur in the spinal cord and in specific regions of the brain, and hematopoietic stem cells occur in the blood and bone marrow.
Neural stem cells were first discovered in the adult human brain in 1998 within the hippocampus, a region of the brain known to be instrumental in the formation of memories.1
Prior to this discovery, it was widely believed that the adult brain was a fixed system incapable of regenerating new cells. Following this initial finding, researchers also identified neural stem cells in the olfactory bulbs and observed that they remain dormant in other areas, including the septum, the striatum, and the spinal cord.1