Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 113, Issue 51, Pages 14829-14834Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1614826113
Keywords
myelin; oligodendrocytes; Schwann cells; testosterone; androgen receptor
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Funding
- European Leukodystrophy Association (ELA) Foundation (France)
- Mattern Foundation
- Higher Education Commission of Pakistan
- French Embassy in Pakistan
- ELA
- French Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (ARSEP)
- UK Multiple Sclerosis Society
- Medical Research Council [MC_PC_12009] Funding Source: researchfish
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Lost myelin can be replaced after injury or during demyelinating diseases in a regenerative process called remyelination. In the central nervous system (CNS), the myelin sheaths, which protect axons and allow the fast propagation of electrical impulses, are produced by oligodendrocytes. The abundance and widespread distribution of oligodendrocyte progenitors (OPs) within the adult CNS account for this remarkable regenerative potential. Here, we report a key role for the male gonad, testosterone, and androgen receptor (AR) in CNS remyelination. After lysolecithin-induced demyelination of the male mouse ventral spinal cord white matter, the recruitment of glial fibrillary acidic protein-expressing astrocytes was compromised in the absence of testes and testosterone signaling via AR. Concomitantly, the differentiation of OPs into oligodendrocytes forming myelin basic protein (MBP)(+) and proteolipid protein-positive myelin was impaired. Instead, in the absence of astrocytes, axons were remyelinated by protein zero (P0)(+) and peripheral myelin protein 22-kDa (PMP22)(+) myelin, normally only produced by Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system. Thus, testosterone favors astrocyte recruitment and spontaneous oligodendrocyte-mediated remyelination. This finding may have important implications for demyelinating diseases, psychiatric disorders, and cognitive aging. The testosterone dependency of CNS oligodendrocyte remyelination may have roots in the evolutionary history of the AR, because the receptor has evolved from an ancestral 3-keto-steroid receptor through gene duplication at the time when myelin appeared in jawed vertebrates.
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