The tetraspanin KAI1/CD82 is expressed by late-lineage oligodendrocyte precursors and may function to restrict precursor migration and promote oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination.

In the adult mammalian brain, oligodendrocyte progenitors can differentiate into mature oligodendrocytes during remyelination. Mechanisms that regulate migration and differentiation of progenitors are of great importance in understanding normal development and demyelinating/remyelinating conditions. In a microarray analysis comparing adult and neonatal O4-positive (+) cells, we found that the tetraspanin KAI1/CD82 is far more highly expressed in adult O4(+) cells than in neonatal O4(+) cells (Lin et al., 2009). CD82 is a metastasis suppressor, and its expression is often downregulated or lost in the advanced stages of metastatic cancer. We hypothesized that CD82 could be a factor that restricts migration and promotes differentiation of maturing oligodendrocytes. Western blot analysis of isolated adult O4(+) cells confirms the elevated levels of CD82, which continues to be expressed as these become O1(+) in vitro. In the adult rat white matter, CD82 is coexpressed with CC1 and olig2 but not with NG2 or GFAP. Immature cells of the neonatal forebrain subventricular zone (SVZ) infected in vivo with a retrovirus that constitutively expresses CD82 do not remain immature but differentiate into either CC1(+) and MBP(+) myelinating oligodendrocytes in the white matter or zebrinII(+) astrocytes in the cortex. Their migration from the SVZ is severely restricted. In contrast, downregulation of CD82 in SVZ cells in vivo, using retroviral-expressed short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs), prevents their differentiation into myelinating oligodendrocytes. shRNA-expressing cells remained PDGF receptor alpha positive, olig2(+), or NG2(+) or became CC1(+) nonmyelinating oligodendrocytes or GFAP(+) astrocytes. CD82 thus appears to be a critical molecule in the regulation of oligodendrocyte progenitor migration and myelination.