GJA1/CX43 High Expression Levels in the Cervical Spinal Cord of ALS Patients Correlate to Microglia-Mediated Neuroinflammatory Profile.

ABSTRACT: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting motoneurons (MNs) with a fatal outcome. The typical degeneration of cortico-spinal, spinal, and bulbar MNs, observed in post-mortem biopsies, is associated with the activation of neuroimmune cells. GJA1, a member of the connexins (Cxs) gene family, encodes for connexin 43 (Cx43), a core gap junctions (GJs)- and hemichannels (HCs)-forming protein, involved in cell death, proliferation, and differentiation. Recently, Cx43 expression was found to play a role in ALS pathogenesis. Here, we used microarray and RNA-seq datasets from the NCBI of the spinal cord of control (NDC) and ALS patients, which were stratified according to the GJA1 gene expression. Genes that positively or negatively correlated to GJA1

SUBMITTER: Vicario N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9496195 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature