Temporal Profiling of Astrocyte Precursors Reveals Parallel Roles for Asef during Development and after Injury.

ABSTRACT: Lineage development is a stepwise process, governed by stage-specific regulatory factors and associated markers. Astrocytes are one of the principle cell types in the CNS and the stages associated with their development remain very poorly defined. To identify these stages, we performed gene-expression profiling on astrocyte precursor populations in the spinal cord, identifying distinct patterns of gene induction during their development that are strongly correlated with human astrocytes. Validation studies identified a new cohort of astrocyte-associated genes during development and demonstrated their expression in reactive astrocytes in human white matter injury (WMI). Functional studies on one of these genes revealed that mice lacking Asef exhibited impaired astrocyte differentiation duri

SUBMITTER: Chaboub LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5125245 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature