Progenitor Cells

Professor Pat Levitt describes progenitor cells, which are immature, undifferentiated cells. They are the precursors to neurons.

The nervous system is built from the very beginning by producing billions of neurons. Those neurons come from cells called progenitor cells. Progenitor cells are essentially the precursors for neurons. They are cells that can divide and they continue to divide very early during prenatal development. In humans, this begins at around eight to ten weeks of gestation. We produce all our neurons, which leave the cell cycle and become what we call post mitotic, by mid-gestation. So the progenitors are essentially the forerunners or the cells that are going to produce all the neurons that we end up with.

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