BMP4/Smad1 Signalling Promotes Spinal Dorsal Column Axon Regeneration and Functional Recovery After Injury.
Fatima FarrukhElise DaviesMartin BerryAnn LoganZubair AhmedPublished in: Molecular neurobiology (2019)
Signalling through the BMP4/Smad1 pathway promotes corticospinal tract axon regeneration and functional recovery in mice. However, unlike humans and rats, mice do not cavitate. Here, we investigated if activation of the BMP4/Smad1 pathway promotes axon regeneration and functional recovery in a rat model that cavitates. We show that dorsal root ganglion neurons (DRGN) in injury models, including the non-regenerating dorsal column (DC) and the regenerating sciatic nerve (SN) crush and preconditioning (p) SN + DC (pSN + DC) paradigms, regulate the BMP4/Smad1 signalling pathway. For example, mRNA expression of positive regulators of the BMP4/Smad1 pathway was highly up-regulated whilst negative regulators were significantly down-regulated in DRGN in the regenerating SN and pSN + DC models compared to non-regenerating DC models, matched by concomitant changes in protein expression detected in DRGN by immunohistochemistry. BMP4 peptide promoted significant DRGN survival and disinhibited neurite outgrowth in vitro, whilst AAV-BMP4 delivery in vivo stimulated DC axon regeneration and functional recovery in a model that cavitates. Our results show that activation of the BMP4/Smad1 pathway is a potential therapeutic target in the search for axon regenerative signalling pathways in the CNS.
Keyphrases
- mesenchymal stem cells
- stem cells
- epithelial mesenchymal transition
- transforming growth factor
- bone regeneration
- spinal cord
- dendritic cells
- neuropathic pain
- transcription factor
- type diabetes
- blood brain barrier
- metabolic syndrome
- risk assessment
- signaling pathway
- wound healing
- mass spectrometry
- subarachnoid hemorrhage
- cerebral ischemia
- wild type
- high frequency