Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 27, Issue 37, Pages 9885-9892Publisher
SOC NEUROSCIENCE
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2539-07.2007
Keywords
Purkinje neurons; bone marrow transplantation; cell fusion; brain repair; heterokaryons; cerebellum
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Fusion of bone marrow-derived cells with adult Purkinje cells in the cerebellum gives rise to binucleated Purkinje cells. Whether fusion can be modulated by epigenetic factors and whether fused neurons are stable has remained unclear. Here, we show that in mice and rats, partial ablation of Purkinje cells and local microglial activation in the absence of structural damage to the cerebellum increase the rate of fusion. Moreover, mouse Purkinje cells once fused with bone marrow-derived cells are viable for at least 7 months. We also show that cerebellar irradiation is unnecessary for the generation of binucleated Purkinje cells after bone marrow grafting. Moreover, binucleated Purkinje cells can be found in aged mice that did not receive any treatment, suggesting that fusion events occasionally occur throughout the whole lifespan of healthy, unmanipulated individuals. However, in aged chimeric mice that, after bone marrow transplant, have the majority of their nucleated blood cells fluorescent, the number of binucleated fluorescent Purkinje cells is two orders of magnitude less than the total number of binucleated Purkinje cells. This suggests that, in the majority of heterokaryons, either the incoming nucleus is quickly inactivated or fusion is not the only way to generate a binucleated Purkinje cell.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available