Project description:Primary afferent collateral sprouting (PACS) is a process whereby non-injured primary afferent neurons respond to some stimulus by extending new branches from existing axons. In the model used here (spared dermatome), the intact sensory neurons respond to the denervation of adjacent areas of skin by sprouting new axon branches into that adjacent denervated territory. Neurons of both the central and peripheral nervous systems undergo this process, which contributes to both adaptive and maladaptive plasticity. Investigations of gene expression changes associated with PACS can provide a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling this process. Consequently, it can be used to develop treatment for spinal cord injury to promote functional recovery. In this study, we sought to identify gene expression changes in PACS using 20 Affymetrix Rat Genome 230 2.0 microarrays. The experiments were designed to discover global gene expression changes in non-injured DRG neurons undergoing PACS. T11 DRG neurons remained intact and undergo PACS after the cutaneous nerves of the adjacent segments (T9, T10, T12, and T13) were injured and regeneration of those injured nerves prevented by ligation. Thus, the T9, T10, T12, and T13 dermatomes were denervated, but the T11 dermatome remained intact. Axons of the T11dermatome (and thus housed in the T11 dorsal root ganglion (DRG)), extended new branches to innervate the T9, T10, T12, and T13 dermatomes. N.B.: This is NOT a spared root experiment. ALL spinal roots were non-injured. Peripheral nerves were used. A total of 20 Affymetrix Rat Genome 230 2.0 microarrays were analyzed: six naÃ¯ve controls, seven replicates at day 7 post-surgery (presumed to represent an â??initiation phaseâ??), and seven replicates at day 14 post-surgery (presumed to represent a â??maintenance phaseâ??). DRGs were NOT pooled onto microarrays. Each animal had its own microarray with T11 DRG sample which underwent 2-round amplification. After quality control analysis, one of the naÃ¯ve control microarrays was removed from further analysis.

Project description:This study aimed to quantify the regulation of transcripts in the hairy skin of the back of adult rats in the condition of loss of sensory and autonomic (sympathetic) innervation (i.e., denervated). Denervated skin has reduced wound healing capacity, reduced proliferation of epidermal progenitor cells, and also expresses factors that regulate ingrowth of sensory and sympathetic axons from neighboring regions of innervated skin. It was expected that this quantification f transcript regulation would offer insight into the general and specific mechanisms that may contribute to these important biological processes. All animals were adult (200-250g) Sprague-Dawley female rats. Three conditions were examined. Groups were naive (n=6), 7-day denervated skin (n=5), and 14-day (n=5) denervated skin. Denervation preparations: Full-thickness incision along long-axis of the body 1cm to right of midline (to avoid injuring skin to be sampled). Incision was centered rostro-caudally on the T13 (thoracic 13) costo-vertebral angle so as to allow access to the T9-L2 (lumbar 2) cutaneous nerves. Skin was reflected to the left and the left T9, T10, L1, and L2 dorsal and lateral cutaneous nerves were isolated, ligated with 7-0 monofilament suture close to their exit from the body wall, and transected. Approximately 5mm of the distal portion of the nerve was resected. The T11 nerves were left unperturbed and were not isolated from the surrounding fascia. This generated two strips of skin that were devoid of sensory and autonomic innervation (those strips served by the T9 and T10 nerves, and by the L1 and L2 nerves). Between these denervated strips of skin was a strip of skin that retained the sensory and autonomic axons supplied by T11 nerves. The denervated zones were identified by mapping the cutaneous trunk muscle (CTM) reflex (see Petruska-JC et al. (2013) Journal of Comparative Neurology; Diamond-J et al., (1992) J Neuroscience), and the border marked with pen and remarked every few days. The samples were taken from the rostral (T9/10) denervated zone. Samples from naive animals (no denervation) were taken from the same region, using the dorsal cutaneous nerves as registration landmarks. Animals displayed no signs of overgrooming of the denervated skin. Because the CTM inserts onto the dermis of this region of skin, samples necessarily include both skin and underlying CTM (which is innervated from another source so was not denervated in the experiment).

Project description:Loss of muscle proteins and the consequent weakness has important clinical consequences in diseases such as cancer, diabetes, chronic heart failure and in ageing. In fact, excessive proteolysis causes cachexia, accelerates disease progression and worsens life expectancy. Muscle atrophy involves a common pattern of transcriptional changes in a small subset of genes named atrophy-related genes or atrogenes. Whether microRNAs play a role in the atrophy program and muscle loss is debated. To understand the involvement of miRNAs in atrophy we performed miRNA expression profiling of mouse muscles under wasting conditions such as fasting, denervation, diabetes and cancer cachexia. We found that the miRNA signature is peculiar of each catabolic condition. We then focused on denervation and we revealed that changes in transcripts and microRNAs expression did not occur simultaneously but were shifted. Indeed, while the transcriptional control of the atrophy-related genes peaks at 3 days, the changes of miRNA expression maximised at 7 days after denervation. Among the different miRNAs, microRNA-206 and 21 were the most induced in denervated muscles. We characterized their pattern of expression and defined their role in muscle homeostasis. Indeed, in vivo gain and loss of function experiments revealed that miRNA-206 and miRNA-21 were sufficient and required for atrophy program. In silico and in vivo approaches identified the transcription factor YY1 and the translational initiator factor eIF4E3 as downstream targets of these miRNAs. Thus miRNAs are important for the fine-tuning of the atrophy program and their modulation can be a novel potential therapeutic approach to counteract muscle loss and weakness in catabolic conditions. To determine which miRNAs are relevant for the atrophic process, we performed miRNA expression profiles of muscles from different atrophic models (starvation, denervation and streptozotocin-induced diabetes). We checked whether there was a common signature of miRNA expression in different atrophying conditions and we found that every catabolic situation require a peculiar pattern of miRNA. We further focus on the condition of denervation and identified the most up-regulated miRNAs in this condition, miRNA-206 and miRNA-21.

Project description:Belt electrode-skeletal muscle electrical stimulation (B-SES) involves the use of belt-shaped electrodes to simultaneously contract multiple muscle groups. Twitch contractions have been demonstrated to protect against denervation-induced muscle atrophy in rats, possibly via mitochondrial biosynthesis. In this study, we examined whether inducing tetanus contractions with B-SES suppresses muscle atrophy and identified the underlying molecular mechanisms. We evaluated the effects of acute (60 Hz, 5 min) and chronic (60 Hz, 5 min, every alternate day for 1 week) B-SES on the tibialis anterior (TA) and gastrocnemius (GAS) muscles in Sprague Dawley rats using belt electrodes attached to both ankle joints. In acute stimulation, a significant decrease in glycogen content in the left and right TA and GAS was observed, suggesting that B-SES causes simultaneous contractions in multiple muscle groups. B-SES also enhanced p70S6K phosphorylation, an indicator of the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 activity. During chronic stimulations, rats were divided into control (CONT), denervation-induced atrophy (DEN), and DEN+electrically stimulated with B-SES (DEN＋ES) groups. After 7 days of treatment, muscle wet weight (n = 8-11 for each group) and muscle fiber cross-sectional area (CSA, n = 6 for each group) of the TA and GAS muscles were reduced in the DEN and DEN+ES groups compared to those in the CON group. The DEN+ES group showed significantly higher muscle weight and CSA than the DEN group. Although RNA-seq and pathway analysis suggested that mitochondrial and ribosome biogenesis are key events in this phenomenon, mitochondrial content showed no difference. In contrast, ribosomal RNA 28S and 45S (n = 6) levels in the DEN+ES group were higher than those in the DEN group. The mRNA levels of the muscle proteolytic molecules Atrogin-1 and MuRF1 were significantly higher in DEN than in CONT but were suppressed in DEN+ES. In conclusion, tetanic electrical stimulation of both ankles using belt electrodes was effective in preventing denervation-induced atrophy in multiple muscle groups. Unlike twitch contractions, ribosomal biosynthesis plays a key role in tetanic contractions to prevent muscle atrophy.

Project description:Salamander limb regeneration is dependent upon tissue interactions that are local to the amputation site. Communication among limb epidermis, peripheral nerves, and mesenchyme coordinate cell migration, cell proliferation, and tissue patterning to generate a blastema, a mass of progenitor cells that forms missing limb structures. An outstanding question is how molecular cross-talk between these tissues gives rise to the regeneration blastema. To identify genes associated with epidermis-nerve-mesenchymal interactions during limb regeneration, we examined histological and transcriptional changes during the first week following injury in the wound epidermis and subjacent cells between three injury types; 1) a flank wound on the side of the animal that will not regenerate a limb, 2) a denervated limb that will not regenerate a limb, and 3) an innervated limb that will regenerate a limb. Early, histological and transcriptional changes were highly similar between the three injury types, presumably because a common wound-healing program is employed across anatomical locations. However, we identified transcripts that were enriched in the limb compared to the flank and are associated with vertebrate limb development. Many of these genes were activated before blastema outgrowth and in situ hybridization showed that some of these genes were expressed in specific tissue types including the epidermis, peripheral nerve, and mesenchyme. We also identified a relatively small group of transcripts that were more highly expressed in innervated limbs versus denervated limbs. These transcripts encode for proteins that are associated with myelination of peripheral nerves, epidermal maintenance, and cell proliferation, suggesting that denervation affects myelinating Schwann cells, epidermal cell function, and proliferation of mesenchymal cells. Overall, our study identifies limb-specific and nerve-dependent genes that are upstream of regenerative growth, and thus promising candidates for the regulation of blastema formation. We used microarray analysis to determine the gene expression changes that take place during limb regeneration, flank wound healing, and an denervated amputated limb. Epidermal tissue and cells adhered to the epidermis were collected as samples. Two harvested samples was pooled for each animal. Four biological replicates were collected from uninjured epidermis (D0) and at 1, 3, and 7 days post injury.

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Genome-wide analysis of denervation and dexamethasone-responsive gene expression in mouse triceps surae muscle

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