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Glial cells in the mouse enteric nervous system can undergo neurogenesis in response to injury.

ABSTRACT: The enteric nervous system (ENS) in mammals forms from neural crest cells during embryogenesis and early postnatal life. Nevertheless, multipotent progenitors of the ENS can be identified in the adult intestine using clonal cultures and in vivo transplantation assays. The identity of these neurogenic precursors in the adult gut and their relationship to the embryonic progenitors of the ENS are currently unknown. Using genetic fate mapping, we here demonstrate that mouse neural crest cells marked by SRY box-containing gene 10 (Sox10) generate the neuronal and glial lineages of enteric ganglia. Most neurons originated from progenitors residing in the gut during mid-gestation. Afterward, enteric neurogenesis was reduced, and it ceased between 1 and 3 months of postnatal life. Sox10-expressing cells present in the myenteric plexus of adult mice expressed glial markers, and we found no evidence that these cells participated in neurogenesis under steady-state conditions. However, they retained neurogenic potential, as they were capable of generating neurons with characteristics of enteric neurons in culture. Furthermore, enteric glia gave rise to neurons in vivo in response to chemical injury to the enteric ganglia. Our results indicate that despite the absence of constitutive neurogenesis in the adult gut, enteric glia maintain limited neurogenic potential, which can be activated by tissue dissociation or injury.

SUBMITTER: Laranjeira C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3163972 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:The enteric nervous system (ENS) arises from the coordinated migration, expansion and differentiation of vagal and sacral neural crest progenitor cells. During development, vagal neural crest cells enter the foregut and migrate in a rostro-to-caudal direction, colonizing the entire gastrointestinal tract and generating the majority of the ENS. Sacral neural crest contributes to a subset of enteric ganglia in the hindgut, colonizing the colon in a caudal-to-rostral wave. During this process, enteric neural crest-derived progenitors (ENPs) self-renew and begin expressing markers of neural and glial lineages as they populate the intestine. Our earlier work demonstrated that the transcription factor Foxd3 is required early in neural crest-derived progenitors for self-renewal, multipotency and establishment of multiple neural crest-derived cells and structures including the ENS. Here, we describe Foxd3 expression within the fetal and postnatal intestine: Foxd3 was strongly expressed in ENPs as they colonize the gastrointestinal tract and was progressively restricted to enteric glial cells. Using a novel Ednrb-iCre transgene to delete Foxd3 after vagal neural crest cells migrate into the midgut, we demonstrated a late temporal requirement for Foxd3 during ENS development. Lineage labeling of Ednrb-iCre expressing cells in Foxd3 mutant embryos revealed a reduction of ENPs throughout the gut and loss of Ednrb-iCre lineage cells in the distal colon. Although mutant mice were viable, defects in patterning and distribution of ENPs were associated with reduced proliferation and severe reduction of glial cells derived from the Ednrb-iCre lineage. Analyses of ENS-lineage and differentiation in mutant embryos suggested activation of a compensatory population of Foxd3-positive ENPs that did not express the Ednrb-iCre transgene. Our findings highlight the crucial roles played by Foxd3 during ENS development including progenitor proliferation, neural patterning, and glial differentiation and may help delineate distinct molecular programs controlling vagal versus sacral neural crest development.

Project description:Factors providing trophic support to diverse enteric neuron subtypes remain poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and the HGF receptor MET might support some types of enteric neurons. HGF and MET are expressed in fetal and adult enteric nervous system. In vitro, HGF increased enteric neuron differentiation and neurite length, but only if vanishingly small amounts (1 pg/ml) of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor were included in culture media. HGF effects were blocked by phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase inhibitor and by MET-blocking antibody. Both of these inhibitors and MEK inhibition reduced neurite length. In adult mice, MET was restricted to a subset of calcitonin gene-related peptide-immunoreactive (IR) myenteric plexus neurons thought to be intrinsic primary afferent neurons (IPANs). Conditional MET kinase domain inactivation (Met(fl/fl); Wnt1Cre+) caused a dramatic loss of myenteric plexus MET-IR neurites and 1-1'-dioctodecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbocyamine perchlorate (DiI) labeling suggested reduced MET-IR neurite length. In vitro, Met(fl/fl); Wnt1Cre+ mouse bowel had markedly reduced peristalsis in response to mucosal deformation, but normal response to radial muscle stretch. However, whole-bowel transit, small-bowel transit, and colonic-bead expulsion were normal in Met(fl/fl); Wnt1Cre+ mice. Finally, Met(fl/fl); Wnt1Cre+ mice had more bowel injury and reduced epithelial cell proliferation compared with WT animals after dextran sodium sulfate treatment. These results suggest that HGF/MET signaling is important for development and function of a subset IPANs and that these cells regulate intestinal motility and epithelial cell proliferation in response to bowel injury.Significance statementThe enteric nervous system has many neuronal subtypes that coordinate and control intestinal activity. Trophic factors that support these neuron types and enhance neurite growth after fetal development are not well understood. We show that a subset of adult calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-expressing myenteric neurons produce MET, the receptor for hepatocyte growth factor, and that loss of MET activity affects peristalsis in response to mucosal stroking, reduces MET-immunoreactive neurites, and increases susceptibility to dextran sodium sulfate-induced bowel injury. These observations may be relevant for understanding and treating intestinal motility disorders and also suggest that enhancing the activity of MET-expressing CGRP neurons might be a useful strategy to reduce bowel inflammation.

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Glial cells in the mouse enteric nervous system can undergo neurogenesis in response to injury.

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