Polysialic acid expression is not necessary for motor neuron target selectivity.
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2013-03
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Abstract
Introduction
Recovery after peripheral nerve lesions depends on guiding axons back to their targets. Polysialic acid upregulation by regrowing axons has been proposed recently as necessary for this target selectivity.Methods
We reexamined this proposition using a cross-reinnervation model whereby axons from obturator motor neurons that do not upregulate polysialic acid regenerated into the distal femoral nerve. Our aim was to assess their target selectivity between pathways to muscle and skin.Results
After simple cross-repair, obturator motor neurons showed no pathway preference, but the same repair with a shortened skin pathway resulted in selective targeting of these motor neurons to muscle by a polysialic acid-independent mechanism.Conclusion
The intrinsic molecular differences between motor neuron pools can be overcome by manipulation of their access to different peripheral nerve pathways such that obturator motor neurons preferentially project to a terminal nerve branch to muscle despite not upregulating the expression of polysialic acid.Type
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Robinson, Grant A, and Roger D Madison (2013). Polysialic acid expression is not necessary for motor neuron target selectivity. Muscle & nerve, 47(3). pp. 364–371. 10.1002/mus.23526 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/33999.
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Scholars@Duke
Grant Alan Robinson
My research interests are in central and peripheral nervous system regeneration.
Roger D. Madison
Neuronal Plasticity: especially as related to the accuracy of peripheral nerve regeneration. My laboratory is currently involved in studying the efficacy of prosthetic "nerve guides" in rodents and non-human primates. The results suggest that such nerve guides can be as effective as a nerve graft to repair transected peripheral nerves. Limited clinical trials of the nerve guide prostheses are underway, in collaboration with a colleague in Denmark. The nerve regeneration work has more recently taken a molecular turn, and my laboratory is currently looking at the differential expression of genes that may underlie the accuracy of peripheral nerve regeneration. We have developed a double labeling technique which allows us to assess the accuracy of nerve regeneration at the single neuron level. We are finding that motor axons and sensory afferents to muscle display a greater than chance level to grow back to muscle as opposed to skin (ie. regeneration specificity). To identify genes and gene products that may be involved in this process, we are using classical subtractive hybridization, the PCR-based differential display of mRNAs, and amplified antisense RNA (aRNA) for Êexpression profilingË.
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