An Astrocyte Regenerative Response from Vimentin-Containing Cells in the Spinal Cord of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis's Disease-Like Transgenic (G93A SOD1) Mice.

An Astrocyte Regenerative Response from Vimentin-Containing Cells in the Spinal Cord of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis's Disease-Like Transgenic (G93A SOD1) Mice. Neurodegener Dis. 2015 Jan 15; Authors: Zhou Y, Lu Y, Fang X, Zhang J, Li J, Li S, Deng X, Yu Y, Xu R Abstract The reason for regeneration in the adult spinal cord during motor neuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) remains largely unknown. To this end, we studied the alteration of vimentin (a neural precursor cells marker in CNS)-containing cells (VCCs) in spinal cord during different stages of ALS used C57BL/6J G93A SOD1 transgenic mice mimicking ALS. Results showed that VCCs were mostly distributed in the ependymal zone (EZ) surrounding the central canal of spinal cord in SOD1 wild type mice; a few of VCCs were sparsely distributed in other regions. However, the number of VCCs significantly increased in the spinal cord during the onset and progression stages of ALS. They were extensively distributed in the EZ, the anterior, the lateral and the posterior horn of grey matter, particularly in the posterior horn region at the progression stage. A majority of VCCs in the anterior, the lateral and the posterior horn of grey matter (outside of EZ) generated astrocytes, but no neurons, oligodendrocytes and microgliocytes. Our results suggested that there was a potential astrocyte regenerative response to motor neuron degeneration in motor neurons-degenerated r...
Source: Neuro-Degenerative Diseases - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neurodegener Dis Source Type: research