Neurogenesis and neuroinflammation: The role of Wnt proteins

Abstract

Adult neurogenesis is an intensively studied phenomenon that is presumably involved in brain functioning under normal and some pathological conditions. Neuroinflammation as a non-specific response of the nerve tissue to pathologic conditions may change the course of adult neurogenesis in the brain and thus enable long-term functional and structural alterations. In this short review, we discuss the interaction of adult neurogenesis and neuroinflammation with a special emphasis on the place that is occupied in both these processes by morphogenic proteins of the Wnt family, which play an important role in the development of the nervous system, as well as in the neuroplasticity of the adult brain.