Project description:Patients carrying one or two ApoE4 alleles suffer from worse functional recovery after spinal cord injury. Using transgenic mice expression human ApoE3 or ApoE4 we investigated potential cellular mechanisms of reduced recovery after spinal cord injury. Bulk RNA sequencing of the spinal cord lesion site followed by pathway enrichment analysis predicts that ApoE4 mice have a higher inflammatory and extracellular matrix remodeling activity 7 days after spinal cord injury. Contrary, higher activities for neuronal projection and action potential patways were predicted in the ApoE3 mice at 21 days after injury.
Project description:Label-free mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics was applied to a larval zebrafish spinal cord injury model, which allows axon regeneration and functional recovery within two days (days post lesion; dpl) after a spinal cord transection in 3 day-old larvae (dpf). Proteomic profiling of the lesion site was performed at 1 dpl and 2 dpl as well as corresponding age-matched unlesioned control tissue (4 dpf as control for 1 dpl; 5 dpf as control for 2 dpl).
Project description:Adult zebrafish have the ability to recover from spinal cord injury and exhibit re-growth of descending axons from the brainstem to the spinal cord. We performed gene expression analysis using microarray to find damage-induced genes after spinal cord injury, which shows that Sox11b mRNA is up-regulated at 11 days after injury. However, the functional relevance of Sox11b for regeneration is not known. Here, we report that the up-regulation of Sox11b mRNA after spinal cord injury is mainly localized in ependymal cells lining the central canal and in newly differentiating neuronal precursors or immature neurons. Using an in vivo morpholino-based gene knockout approach, we demonstrate that Sox11b is essential for locomotor recovery after spinal cord injury. In the injured spinal cord, expression of the neural stem cell associated gene, Nestin, and the proneural gene Ascl1a (Mash1a), which are involved in the self-renewal and cell fate specification of endogenous neural stem cells, respectively, is regulated by Sox11b. Our data indicate that Sox11b promotes neuronal determination of endogenous stem cells and regenerative neurogenesis after spinal cord injury in the adult zebrafish. Enhancing Sox11b expression to promote proliferation and neurogenic determination of endogenous neural stem cells after injury may be a promising strategy in restorative therapy after spinal cord injury in mammals. Spinal cord injury or control sham injury was performed on adult zebrafish. After 4, 12, or 264 hrs, a 5 mm segment of spinal cord was dissected and processed (as a pool from 5 animals) in three replicate groups for each time point and treatment.
Project description:Spinal cord injury disrupts ascending and descending neural signals causing sensory and motor dysfunction below the injury. Neuromodulation with electrical stimulation is used in both clinical and research settings to induce neural plasticity and improve functional recovery following injury. However, the mechanisms by which electrical stimulation affects recovery remain unclear. In this study we examined the effects of cortical electrical stimulation following injury on transcription at several levels of the central nervous system. We performed a unilateral cervical spinal contusion injury in rats and delivered stimulation for one week to the contralesional motor cortex to activate a descending motor tract.RNA was purified from bilateral subcortical white matter, and 3 levels of the spinal cord. Here we provide the complete data set in the hope that it will be useful for researchers studying electrical stimulation as a therapy to improve recovery from the deficits associated with spinal cord injury.
Project description:This dataset supports a study investigating the effects of delayed atorvastatin treatment on gene expression and functional recovery in a chronic mouse model of spinal cord injury (SCI). Twelve-week-old female C57BL/6 mice were subjected to moderate 0.25 mm lateral compression SCI and after two weeks, were treated with atorvastatin (10 mg/kg) or a vehicle control daily for four weeks. Bulk RNA sequencing of spinal cord tissues at six weeks post-injury revealed broad alterations to gene expression due to SCI (DEGs common to both treatments and unique to each) and a smaller set of alterations due uniquely to atorvastatin treatment. Atorvastatin treatment specifically activated gene programs associated with axon guidance and fatty acid transport, which may contribute to the enhanced sensorimotor recovery. This RNA-seq dataset offers insights into the molecular underpinnings by which atorvastatin enhances sensorimotor recovery and modulates gene expression post-SCI.
Project description:Adult zebrafish have the ability to recover from spinal cord injury and exhibit re-growth of descending axons from the brainstem to the spinal cord. We performed gene expression analysis using microarray to find damage-induced genes after spinal cord injury, which shows that Sox11b mRNA is up-regulated at 11 days after injury. However, the functional relevance of Sox11b for regeneration is not known. Here, we report that the up-regulation of Sox11b mRNA after spinal cord injury is mainly localized in ependymal cells lining the central canal and in newly differentiating neuronal precursors or immature neurons. Using an in vivo morpholino-based gene knockout approach, we demonstrate that Sox11b is essential for locomotor recovery after spinal cord injury. In the injured spinal cord, expression of the neural stem cell associated gene, Nestin, and the proneural gene Ascl1a (Mash1a), which are involved in the self-renewal and cell fate specification of endogenous neural stem cells, respectively, is regulated by Sox11b. Our data indicate that Sox11b promotes neuronal determination of endogenous stem cells and regenerative neurogenesis after spinal cord injury in the adult zebrafish. Enhancing Sox11b expression to promote proliferation and neurogenic determination of endogenous neural stem cells after injury may be a promising strategy in restorative therapy after spinal cord injury in mammals.
Project description:Label-free mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics was applied to a larval zebrafish spinal cord injury model, which allows axon regeneration and functional recovery within two days (days post lesion; dpl) after a spinal cord transection in 3 day-old larvae (dpf). Proteomic profiling was performed of the lesion site at 1 dpl in control animals and animals with pdgfrb+ cell-specific overexpression of either zebrafish chondoradherin (chad; chad-mCherry fusion), fibromodulin a (fmoda; fmoda-mCherry fusion), lumican (lum; lum-mCherry fusion) or prolargin (prelp; prelp-mCherry fusion).
Project description:The lamprey is a vertebrate that, unlike mammals, achieves spontaneous recovery after spinal cord transection. Despite anatomical, physiological, and behavioral data on spinal cord regeneration in lamprey, the molecular mechanisms underlying this capacity are largely unknown. To address this, we used RNA-Seq to obtain transcriptional profiles from uninjured animals and at 10 time points ranging from 6 hours to 12 weeks post injury. Overall, 4208 (spinal cord) and 3788 (brain) transcripts are differentially expressed (DE). Complex intraspinal and supraspinal responses were induced acutely and occurred even at chronic phases of recovery. Leveraging functional data for mammalian homologs of DE genes (via Enrichr) permitted identification of enriched conserved genes and pathways. These included genes and pathways induced after mammalian peripheral nerve injury, such as those associated with regeneration, immune function, cell growth, proliferation and cell death. For example, ATF3, a transcription factor implicated in mammalian peripheral nerve regeneration, is highly expressed and enriched in lamprey spinal cord and brain after SCI. Other homologs of regeneration-associated genes that are differentially expressed after SCI include members of the WNT, HDAC, SOX, SMAD, KLF, and JUN families. This study provides the first comprehensive view of transcriptional responses during successful anatomical and functional recovery from spinal cord injury in lamprey, and reveals unexpectedly large changes in transcription in the brain, which is quite distant from the spinal lesion site. Gene expression patterns associated with functional recovery in lamprey may be useful in guiding studies aimed at modulating mammalian responses to SCI.
Project description:This project is "Phosphoproteomic analysis of the lumbar spinal cord, a lesion site in the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) mouse model SOD1G93A mice". The aim of this study is to clarify the phosphorylation changes by the lumbar spinal cord of SOD1G93A mice at 20w by applying proteomics technology. The goal of this study is to better understand the pathogenesis of ALS. lumbar spinal cord of SOD1G93A mice (n=5) and WT mice (n=4) were collected at 20w, and the phosphoproteomics were compared.