Cristina A. Ghiani

Glutamate receptors in glia: new cells, new inputs and new functions

Functional glutamate receptors are expressed on the majority of glial cell types in the developing and mature brain. Although glutamate receptors on glia are activated by glutamate released from neurons, their physiological role remains largely unknown. Potential roles for these receptors in glia include regulation of proliferation and differentiation, and modulation of synaptic efficacy. Recent anatomical and functional evidence indicates that glutamate receptors on immature glia are activated through direct synaptic inputs. Therefore, glutamate and its receptors appear to be involved in a continuous crosstalk between neurons and glia during development and also in the mature brain.

STAT3-mediated astrogliosis protects myelin development in neonatal brain injury.

Pathological findings in neonatal brain injury associated with preterm birth include focal and/or diffuse white matter injury (WMI). Despite the heterogeneous nature of this condition, reactive astrogliosis and microgliosis are frequently observed. Thus, molecular mechanisms by which glia activation contribute to WMI were investigated.

Dysbindin-Containing Complexes and their Proposed Functions in Brain: From Zero to (too) Many in a Decade

Dysbindin (also known as dysbindin-1 or dystrobrevin-binding protein 1) was identified 10 years ago as a ubiquitously expressed protein of unknown function. In the following years, the protein and its encoding gene, DTNBP1, have become the focus of intensive research owing to genetic and histopathological evidence suggesting a potential role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. In this review, we discuss published results demonstrating that dysbindin function is required for normal physiology of the mammalian central nervous system. In tissues other than brain and in non-neuronal cell types, the protein has been characterized as a stable component of a multi-subunit complex, named BLOC-1 (biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex-1), which has been implicated in intracellular protein trafficking and the biogenesis of specialized organelles of the endosomal–lysosomal system. In the brain, however, dysbindin has been proposed to associate into multiple complexes with alternative binding partners, and to play a surprisingly wide variety of functions including transcriptional regulation, neurite and dendritic spine formation, synaptic vesicle biogenesis and exocytosis, and trafficking of glutamate and dopamine receptors. This puzzling array of molecular and functional properties ascribed to the dysbindin protein from brain underscores the need of further research aimed at ascertaining its biological significance in health and disease.

Growth factor-dependent actions of PACAP on oligodendrocyte progenitor proliferation.

We previously reported that rat oligodendrocyte progenitors (OLP) express receptors for the pituitary adenylyl cyclase-activating peptide (PACAP) in vivo and in vitro. Addition of PACAP to cultured OLP triggered a potent elevation in intracellular cAMP contents, a dose-dependent stimulation of proliferation, and a delay in myelinogenesis (Lee M, Lelievre V, Zhao P, Torres M, Rodriguez W, Byun JY, Doshi S, Ioffe Y, Gupta G, de los Monteros AE, de Vellis J, Waschek J. Pituitary adenylyl cyclase-activating polypeptide stimulates DNA synthesis but delays maturation of oligodendrocyte progenitors. J Neurosci. 2001 21:3849-59.). In an attempt to understand how PACAP might interact with growth factors known to stimulate OLP proliferation, we investigated PACAP actions on OLP proliferation in the presence of Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 (FGF-2) and PDGF. Multiple PACAP receptor subtype mRNAs and splice variants were detected in these cultures. PACAP by itself potently stimulated OLP proliferation and enhanced the ability of FGF-2 to stimulate DNA synthesis. In contrast, this peptide strongly antagonized the mitogenic effects of PDGF in association with a reduction of PDGFalpha receptor gene expression. Additionally, we investigated the interaction of PACAP with the morphogenetic factor sonic hedgehog (Shh), which recently was shown to be crucial for oligodendrocyte generation. OLP cultures were found to express mRNAs for both ptc1 (Shh receptor) and gli1 (Shh target gene) and responded to Shh treatment with an increase in proliferation. PACAP antagonized the ability of Shh to stimulate OLP proliferation. Moreover, transcriptional targets of Shh signaling were also reduced by this treatment, suggesting that PACAP directly antagonized Shh signaling. These studies reveal complex in vitro interactions of PACAP with other factors involved in OLP development.

Aspartoacylase deficiency affects early postnatal development of oligodendrocytes and myelination

Canavan disease (CD) is a neurodegenerative disease, caused by a deficiency in the enzyme aspartoacylase (ASPA). This enzyme has been localized to oligodendrocytes; however, it is still undefined how ASPA deficiency affects oligodendrocyte development. In normal mice the pattern of ASPA expression coincides with oligodendrocyte maturation. Therefore, postnatal oligodendrocyte maturation was analyzed in ASPA-deficient mice (CD mice). Early in development, CD mice brains showed decreased expression of neural cell markers that was later compensated. In addition, the levels of myelin proteins were decreased along with abnormal myelination in CD mice compared to wild-type (WT). These defects were associated with increased global levels of acetylated histone H3, decreased chromatin compaction and increased GFAP protein, a marker for astrogliosis. Together, these findings strongly suggest that, early in postnatal development, ASPA deficiency affects oligodendrocyte maturation and myelination.

Decreased reelin expression and organophosphate pesticide exposure alters mouse behaviour and brain morphology

Genetic and environmental factors are both likely to contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders, including ASDs (autism spectrum disorders). In this study, we examined the combinatorial effect of two factors thought to be involved in autism – reduction in the expression of the extracellular matrix protein reelin and prenatal exposure to an organophosphate pesticide, CPO (chlorpyrifos oxon). Mice with reduced reelin expression or prenatal exposure to CPO exhibited subtle changes in ultrasound vocalization, open field behaviour, social interaction and repetitive behaviour. Paradoxically, mice exposed to both variables often exhibited a mitigation of abnormal behaviours, rather than increased behavioural abnormalities as expected. We identified specific differences in males and females in response to both of these variables. In addition to behavioural abnormalities, we identified anatomical alterations in the olfactory bulb, piriform cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum. As with our behavioural studies, anatomical alterations appeared to be ameliorated in the presence of both variables. While these observations support an interaction between loss of reelin expression and CPO exposure, our results suggest a complexity to this interaction beyond an additive effect of individual phenotypes.

Misaligned feeding impairs memories

Robust sleep/wake rhythms are important for health and cognitive function. Unfortunately, many people are living in an environment where their circadian system is challenged by inappropriate meal- or work-times. Here we scheduled food access to the sleep time and examined the impact on learning and memory in mice. Under these conditions, we demonstrate that the molecular clock in the master pacemaker, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), is unaltered while the molecular clock in the hippocampus is synchronized by the timing of food availability. This chronic circadian misalignment causes reduced hippocampal long term potentiation and total CREB expression. Importantly this mis-timed feeding resulted in dramatic deficits in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory. Our findings suggest that the timing of meals have far-reaching effects on hippocampal physiology and learned behaviour. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09460.001

Circadian rhythm disruption in a mouse model of Rett syndrome circadian disruption in RTT.

Disturbances in the sleep/wake cycle are prevalent in patients with Rett syndrome (RTT). We sought to determine whether the circadian system is disrupted in a RTT model, Mecp2(-/y) mice. We found that MeCP2 mutants showed decreased strength and precision of daily rhythms of activity coupled with extremely fragmented sleep. The central circadian clock (suprachiasmatic nucleus) exhibited significant reduction in the number of neurons expressing vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) as well as compromised spontaneous neural activity. The molecular clockwork was disrupted both centrally in the SCN and in peripheral organs, indicating a general disorganization of the circadian system. Disruption of the molecular clockwork was observed in fibroblasts of RTT patients. Finally, MeCP2 mutant mice were vulnerable to circadian disruption as chronic jet lag accelerated mortality. Our finds suggest an integral role of MeCP2 in the circadian timing system and provides a possible mechanistic explanation for the sleep/wake distrubances observed in RTT patients. The work raises the possibility that RTT patients may benefit from a temporally structured environment.

Cardiac Dysfunction in the BACHD Mouse Model of Huntington’s Disease

While Huntington’s disease (HD) is classified as a neurological disorder, HD patients exhibit a high incidence of cardiovascular events leading to heart failure and death. In this study, we sought to better understand the cardiovascular phenotype of HD using the BACHD mouse model. The age-related decline in cardiovascular function was assessed by echocardiograms, electrocardiograms, histological and microarray analysis. We found that structural and functional differences between WT and BACHD hearts start at 3 months of age and continue throughout life. The aged BACHD mice develop cardiac fibrosis and ultimately apoptosis. The BACHD mice exhibited adaptive physiological changes to chronic isoproterenol treatment; however, the medication exacerbated fibrotic lesions in the heart. Gene expression analysis indicated a strong tilt toward apoptosis in the young mutant heart as well as changes in genes involved in cellular metabolism and proliferation. With age, the number of genes with altered expression increased with the large changes occurring in the cardiovascular disease, cellular metabolism, and cellular transport clusters. The BACHD model of HD exhibits a number of changes in cardiovascular function that start early in the disease progress and may provide an explanation for the higher cardiovascular risk in HD.

Sex Differences in Circadian Dysfunction in the BACHD Mouse Model of Huntington's Disease.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder that affects men and women in equal numbers, but some epidemiological studies indicate there may be sex differences in disease progression. One of the early symptoms of HD is disruptions in the circadian timing system, but it is currently unknown whether sex is a factor in these alterations. Since sex differences in HD could provide important insights to understand cellular and molecular mechanism(s) and designing early intervention strategies, we used the bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic mouse model of HD (BACHD) to examine whether sex differences in circadian behavioral rhythms are detectable in an animal model of the disease. Similar to BACHD males, BACHD females display circadian disruptions at both 3 and 6 months of age; however, deficits to BACHD female mouse activity levels, rhythm precision, and behavioral fragmentation are either delayed or less severe relative to males. These sex differences are associated with a smaller suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in BACHD male mice at age of symptom onset (3 months), but are not associated with sex-specific differences in SCN daytime electrical activity deficits, or peptide expression (arginine vasopressin, vasoactive intestinal peptide) within the SCN. Notably, BACHD females exhibited delayed motor coordination deficits, as measured using rotarod and challenge beam. These findings suggest a sex specific factor plays a role both in non-motor and motor symptom progression for the BACHD mouse.