Neural stem cells (NSC) are multipotential progenitor cells that have self-renewal activities and believed as a source for treatment of degenerative brain disease such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. In this study, we investigated the prolifer-ation and migration of neural stem cells and effect of dietry restriction to neurogenesis in the adult rat hippocampus. We observed the dividing cells in hippocampal alveus as well as in dentate gyrus by incorporation of BrdU. BrdU-labelled cells were migrated from hippocampal alveus near CA1 subfield toward CA3 in hippocampus and from subgranular cell layer to granular cell layer, following the migration pathway which neu-ral stem cells migrate during embryogenesis. In dietry restriction (DR) models, BrdU- labelled cells were increased significantly in dentate gyrus and CA1 subfield. The present study suggestes that short-term DR improves proliferation of neural stem cells in the adult rats.

Keywords: Dietary restrichion, neural stem cell, hippocampus