engleski

THE ROLE OF ATF3 TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR IN ENDOGENOUS SPINAL STEM CELLS ACTIVATION AND SPINAL CORD REGENERATION

One of the major challenges of modern biology concerns the inability of the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) to regenerate and repair itself after injury. Manipulation of endogenous neuronal stem/progenitor cells (SPCs) is the focus of intense research with the goal of developing new regenerative treatments for CNS pathologies, including SCI. Spinal ependymal SPCs are essential for neuroregeneration after SCI in lower vertebrates, while in mammals they seemingly lack this property. If and how many such cells become activated and their fate have so far remained unclear. Our recent results have demonstrated for the first time that the dynamic expression of Activating Transcription Factor 3 (ATF3) by ependymal spinal SPCs cells is a reliable and validated biomarker of SPCs activity, thus providing the unique possibility to quantify and follow up activated spinal SPCs. The ependymal SPCs have been analyzed in rats and opossums, marsupials born at very immature stage with the unique possibility to successfully regenerate spinal cord after postnatal injury. The results have shown different activity state of the spinal SPCs cells in newborn rats and opossums, suggesting their possible role in regeneration of spinal tissue after injury. Thus, the protein content of quiescent or active SPCs in rat and opossum spinal cord will be analyzed to identify differentially expressed molecules that are the key regulators of the spinal SPCs quiescence/activation, using ATF3 as readout, with the final goal to develop new strategies to repair neuronal tissue after SCI by facilitating activation of spinal SPCs after injury.

mammalian central nervous system regeneration, endogenous neuronal stem cells, spinal ependymal cells

nije evidentirano