Tumor necrosis factor alpha mediates neuromuscular synapse elimination.

ABSTRACT: During the development of mammalian neuromuscular junction (NMJ), the original supernumerary axon inputs are gradually eliminated, finally leaving each muscle fiber innervated by a single axon terminal. However, the molecular cues that mediate the elimination of redundant axon inputs remain unclear. Here we show that tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) expressed in postsynaptic muscle cells plays an important role in presynaptic axonal elimination at the NMJ. We found that intramuscular injection of TNFα into the levator auris longus (LAL) muscles caused disassociation of presynaptic nerve terminals from the postsynaptic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) clusters. By contrast, genetic ablation of TNFα globally or specifically in skeletal muscle cells, but not in motoneurons or Schwann cells, delaye

SUBMITTER: Fu XQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7051980 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature