Dataset Information

BDNF promotes target innervation of Xenopus mandibular trigeminal axons in vivo.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Trigeminal nerves consist of ophthalmic, maxillary, and mandibular branches that project to distinct regions of the facial epidermis. In Xenopus embryos, the mandibular branch of the trigeminal nerve extends toward and innervates the cement gland in the anterior facial epithelium. The cement gland has previously been proposed to provide a short-range chemoattractive signal to promote target innervation by mandibular trigeminal axons. Brain derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF is known to stimulate axon outgrowth and branching. The goal of this study is to determine whether BDNF functions as the proposed target recognition signal in the Xenopus cement gland.

Results

We found that the cement gland is enriched in BDNF mRNA transcripts compared to the other neurotrophins NT3 and NT4 during mandibular trigeminal nerve innervation. BDNF knockdown in Xenopus embryos or specifically in cement glands resulted in the failure of mandibular trigeminal axons to arborise or grow into the cement gland. BDNF expressed ectodermal grafts, when positioned in place of the cement gland, promoted local trigeminal axon arborisation in vivo.

Conclusion

BDNF is necessary locally to promote end stage target innervation of trigeminal axons in vivo, suggesting that BDNF functions as a short-range signal that stimulates mandibular trigeminal axon arborisation and growth into the cement gland.

SUBMITTER: Huang JK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1899173 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

BDNF promotes target innervation of Xenopus mandibular trigeminal axons in vivo.

Huang Jeffrey K JK Dorey Karel K Ishibashi Shoko S Amaya Enrique E

BMC developmental biology 20070531

<h4>Background</h4>Trigeminal nerves consist of ophthalmic, maxillary, and mandibular branches that project to distinct regions of the facial epidermis. In Xenopus embryos, the mandibular branch of the trigeminal nerve extends toward and innervates the cement gland in the anterior facial epithelium. The cement gland has previously been proposed to provide a short-range chemoattractive signal to promote target innervation by mandibular trigeminal axons. Brain derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF is ...[more]

PMID: 17540021

Similar Datasets

Project description:Oligodendrocytes form myelin around axons of the central nervous system, enabling saltatory conduction. Recent work has established that axons can regulate certain aspects of oligodendrocyte development and myelination, yet remarkably oligodendrocytes in culture retain the ability to differentiate in the absence of axons and elaborate myelin sheaths around synthetic axon-like substrates. It remains unclear the extent to which the life-course of oligodendrocytes requires the presence of, or signals derived from axons in vivo. In particular, it is unclear whether the specific axons fated for myelination regulate the oligodendrocyte population in a living organism, and if so, which precise steps of oligodendrocyte-cell lineage progression are regulated by target axons. Here, we use live-imaging of zebrafish larvae carrying transgenic reporters that label oligodendrocyte-lineage cells to investigate which aspects of oligodendrocyte development, from specification to differentiation, are affected when we manipulate the target axonal environment. To drastically reduce the number of axons targeted for myelination, we use a previously identified kinesin-binding protein (kbp) mutant, in which the first myelinated axons in the spinal cord, reticulospinal axons, do not fully grow in length, creating a region in the posterior spinal cord where most initial targets for myelination are absent. We find that a 73% reduction of reticulospinal axon surface in the posterior spinal cord of kbp mutants results in a 27% reduction in the number of oligodendrocytes. By time-lapse analysis of transgenic OPC reporters, we find that the reduction in oligodendrocyte number is explained by a reduction in OPC proliferation and survival. Interestingly, OPC specification and migration are unaltered in the near absence of normal axonal targets. Finally, we find that timely differentiation of OPCs into oligodendrocytes does not depend at all on the presence of target axons. Together, our data illustrate the power of zebrafish for studying the entire life-course of the oligodendrocyte lineage in vivo in an altered axonal environment.

Dataset Information

BDNF promotes target innervation of Xenopus mandibular trigeminal axons in vivo.

Background

Results

Conclusion

Publications

BDNF promotes target innervation of Xenopus mandibular trigeminal axons in vivo.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets