Neural Progenitor Cells (NPC) and Intermediate Progenitor Cell (IPC)

[B_Stem]

Hello,

i was reading an article about temporal control of cortical mammalian neurogenesis and the authors say that RGCs (radial Glial Cells) act as neural stem cells and differentiate into IPC (Intermediate Progenitor Cell). Then, these IPCs can differentiate into neurons. (RGC => IPC => Neurons)

But later in the paper, they talk about NPC (neural progenitor cell) and i'm a bit confused by this term. So here is my question :

- is NPC a group of different kind of progenitors in which are IPCs ? And if yes, why do they talk about NPC and not IPC ?

Thank you

Paper : Temporal Control of Mammalian Cortical Neurogenesis by m6A Methylation (Cell, 2017)

[CharonY]

The naming convention can be a bit confusing as well as inconsistent, depending what folks are talking about. Roughly speaking, all multipotentcells that can differentiate to neurons, astrocytes and/or oligodendrocytes are typically called neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPC) or some variation thereof. However, often intermediate NSPCs (i.e. cells that are further, but not terminally differentiated) are also called NPC or NSPCs. Under the latter nomenclature, radia glia cells as well as basal intermediate progenitors (also called intermediate progenitor, or intermediate neural progenitor cells [honestly, developmental folks really should get a grip on things, especially those guys working mice/humans...]). 

From what I have seen use is somewhat inconsistent, but roughly speaking if folks talk specifically about neural stem cells (NSC) it is specific to the pluripotent stem cells and can then be distinguished from NPCs which are a bit further along and include RGCs as well as BPs. But hey, we also got neural precursor cells, which can be used instead of NSPCs.

[B_Stem]

Thank you very much for your answer. I'm glad i'm not the only one confused by this mess... 

As I understand, NPCs include RGCs and BPs (=IPC). But I don't understand why the authors are suddenly talking about NPCs. The first time they talk about NPCs is in the results : "

we performed time-lapse imaging of individual cortical neural progenitor cells (NPCs) cultured from E13.5 mouse cortex". 

So does that mean that they don't make the difference between RGCs and IPCs ? 

[CharonY]

I would have to take a look at the paper to be certain what they mean. However, often in these studies it is due to the marker they use for identification.