Project description:5069 transcriptomes of single oligodendrocyte cells from spinal cord, substantia nigra-ventral tegmental area, striatum, amygdala, hypothalamic nuclei, zona incerta, hippocampus, and somatosensory cortex of male and female mice between post-natal day 21 and 90. The study aimed at identifying diverse populations of oligodendrocytes, and revealing dynamics of oligodendrocyte maturation. 5069 individual cells were sampled from CNS regions of mice of various strains as detailed in the protocols section
Project description:Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is linked to depression and dementia in later life by inflammatory involvement of the central nervous system (CNS). Regional heterogeneity of brain immunophenotypes was described under homeostasis, but a topographical resolution of CNS immune responses in chronic peripheral inflammatory diseases like RA is missing. We demonstrate regional heterogeneity of CNS susceptibility to chronic peripheral inflammation in the human tumor necrosis factor α transgenic (TNFtg) mouse model of RA. TNFtg mice showed myeloid cell infiltration, microglial activation, and a mutual transcriptomic fingerprint of neuroinflammation in the cortex, striatum, and thalamus. Immune responses were minimal in the hippocampus and cerebellum. We demonstrate regional CNS immune responses to chronic peripheral inflammation, sparing the hippocampus and cerebellum and reversible by peripheral anti-inflammatory treatment. Targeting microenvironmental susceptibility or resilience of brain regions will help to prevent and treat RA-related neuropsychiatric comorbidity. RNA-sequencing was performed from five brain regions (cortex, striatum, thalamus, hippocampus, and cerebellum) from C57Bl6/J wild type mice and TNFtg mice (strain Tg197; kindly provided by George Kollias (Fleming Institute, Vari, Greece).
Project description:Inflammation after injury of the central nervous system (CNS) is increasingly viewed as a therapeutic target. However, comparative studies in different CNS compartments are sparse. To date only few studies based on immunohistochemical data and all referring to mechanical injury have directly compared inflammation in different CNS compartments. These studies revealed that inflammation is more pronounced in spinal cord than in brain. Therefore, it is unclear whether concepts and treatments established in the cerebral cortex can be transferred to spinal cord lesions and vice versa or whether immunological treatments must be adapted to different CNS compartments. By use of transcriptomic and flow cytometry analysis of equally sized photothrombotically induced lesions in the cerebral cortex and the spinal cord, we could document an overall comparable inflammatory reaction and repair activity in brain and spinal cord between day 1 and day 7 after ischemia. However, remyelination was increased after cerebral versus spinal cord ischemia which is in line with increased remyelination in grey matter in previous analyses and was accompanied by microglia dominated inflammation opposed to monocytes/macrophages dominated inflammation after spinal cord ischemia. Interestingly remyelination could be reduced by microglia and not hematogenous macrophage depletion. Our results show that despite different cellular composition of the postischemic infiltrate the inflammatory response in cerebral cortex and spinal cord are comparable between day 1 and day 7. A striking difference was higher remyelination capacity in the cerebral cortex, which seems to be supported by microglia dominance.
Project description:Combining proteomics and systems biology analyses, we demonstrated that neonatal microglial cells derived from two different CNS locations (cortex and spinal cord) displayed different phenotypes upon different physiological or pathological conditions. These cells also exhibited great variability in terms of both cellular and small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) protein contents and levels. Bioinformatics data analysis showed that the cortical microglia had anti-inflammatory and neurogenesis/tumorigenesis properties, while the spinal cord microglia was rather involved in inflammatory response process. Of interest, while both sEVs microglia sources enhanced growth of DRGs axons, only the spinal cord-derived sEVs microglia under LPS stimulation significantly attenuated glioma proliferation. These results were confirmed through neurite outgrowth assays in DRGs cell line and glioma proliferation analysis in 3D spheroid cultures. Results from these in vitro assays indicated that the microglia localized at different CNS regions can ensure different biological functions. Together, these works indicate that neonatal microglia locations regulate their physiological and pathological functional fates, and could explain the high prevalence of brain vs. spinal cord glioma in adults.
Project description:Changes in gene expression that occur across the entire central nervous system (CNS) during disease do not take into account variability from one CNS region to another and can be confounded by alterations in cellular composition during disease. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by cell proliferation, migration and damage in various cell types in different CNS regions and causes disabilities related to distinct neurological pathways, such as walking, vision and cognition. Here, a cell-specific and region-specific transcriptomic approach was used to determine changes in gene expression in astrocytes derived from spinal cord, cerebellum, cerebral cortex, and hippocampus in the preclinical MS model, chronic experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). RNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis showed that changes in gene expression pathways in astrocytes differed between neuroanatomic regions. Further, while astrocytes from spinal cord showed increased expression of immune pathway genes during EAE, cholesterol biosynthesis pathway genes were decreased. Translating these findings from the preclinical model to humans, optic nerve from EAE and optic chiasm from MS each showed a significant decrease in cholesterol biosynthesis pathways. Finally, a treatment targeting cholesterol homeostasis in astrocytes was protective in EAE, suggesting a novel neuroprotective strategy for MS. Using a cell-specific and region-specific gene expression approach can provide therapeutically relevant insights into mechanisms underlying specific disabilities in complex multifocal neurological diseases.
Project description:Changes in gene expression that occur across the entire central nervous system (CNS) during disease do not take into account variability from one CNS region to another and can be confounded by alterations in cellular composition during disease. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by cell proliferation, migration and damage in various cell types in different CNS regions and causes disabilities related to distinct neurological pathways, such as walking, vision and cognition. Here, a cell-specific and region-specific transcriptomic approach was used to determine changes in gene expression in astrocytes derived from spinal cord, cerebellum, cerebral cortex, and hippocampus in the preclinical MS model, chronic experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). RNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis showed that changes in gene expression pathways in astrocytes differed between neuroanatomic regions. Further, while astrocytes from spinal cord showed increased expression of immune pathway genes during EAE, cholesterol biosynthesis pathway genes were decreased. Translating these findings from the preclinical model to humans, optic nerve from EAE and optic chiasm from MS each showed a significant decrease in cholesterol biosynthesis pathways. Finally, a treatment targeting cholesterol homeostasis in astrocytes was protective in EAE, suggesting a novel neuroprotective strategy for MS. Using a cell-specific and region-specific gene expression approach can provide therapeutically relevant insights into mechanisms underlying specific disabilities in complex multifocal neurological diseases.
Project description:Changes in gene expression that occur across the entire central nervous system (CNS) during disease do not take into account variability from one CNS region to another and can be confounded by alterations in cellular composition during disease. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by cell proliferation, migration and damage in various cell types in different CNS regions and causes disabilities related to distinct neurological pathways, such as walking, vision and cognition. Here, a cell-specific and region-specific transcriptomic approach was used to determine changes in gene expression in astrocytes derived from spinal cord, cerebellum, cerebral cortex, and hippocampus in the preclinical MS model, chronic experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). RNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis showed that changes in gene expression pathways in astrocytes differed between neuroanatomic regions. Further, while astrocytes from spinal cord showed increased expression of immune pathway genes during EAE, cholesterol biosynthesis pathway genes were decreased. Translating these findings from the preclinical model to humans, optic nerve from EAE and optic chiasm from MS each showed a significant decrease in cholesterol biosynthesis pathways. Finally, a treatment targeting cholesterol homeostasis in astrocytes was protective in EAE, suggesting a novel neuroprotective strategy for MS. Using a cell-specific and region-specific gene expression approach can provide therapeutically relevant insights into mechanisms underlying specific disabilities in complex multifocal neurological diseases.
Project description:ChIP-seq of Sox10 in spinal cord and sciatic nerve 2 independent Sox10 ChIP samples each for spinal cord (CNS) and sciatic nerve (PNS), with respective inputs
Project description:In homeostasis, because of the blood-brain barrier, immune cells rarely infiltrate the central nervous system (CNS). However, after spinal cord injury (SCI), many cells, including both myeloid and T cells, infiltrate the spinal cord. However, the role immune cells play in SCI remains controversial. We are curious whether after SCI there are self-peptides that are released and sensed by T cells that then modulate response to CNS injury.