Uncoupling Oligodendrocyte Differentiation and Myelination: Dynamic Neuronal Signaling Not Required
作者单位：Department of Neurology University of California School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine Nanyang Technological University
会议名称：《中国神经科学学会第十二届全国学术会议》
会议日期：2017年
学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 07[理学] 071006[理学-神经生物学]
摘 要：Myelination in the CNS is thought to occur via two distinct, but coupled processes. First, highly proliferative and migratory oligodendrocyte precursor cells（OPCs） differentiate into mature oligodendrocytes（OLs）. Second, OL processes concentrically wrap around selected axons forming myelin. These processes occur in a spatially and temporally stereotyped manner throughout development, which implies that environmental cues are at play in the regulation of OL differentiation and myelination. It is thought that dynamic neuronal signaling involving transcriptional control and neuronal activity plays a major role in regulating these processes, but it is unclear whether this is the case in the early development of white matter tracts, such as the optic nerve, where there is synchronous and robust differentiation and myelination within a short timeframe. By eliminating dynamic neuronal signaling in the optic nerve our findings indicate that（1） OL differentiation and myelination are indeed coupled processes where myelination will occur upon differentiation if provided with a permissive substrate, and（2） dynamic neuronal signaling is not required for the majority of OL differentiation during early white matter development. We propose a model in which OL differentiation is largely regulated by extrinsic, non-neuronal factors during development, but myelination is sensitive to the biophysical properties of axonal diameter.