Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, The First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College, PR China.
Tohoku J Exp Med. 2011 Mar;223(3):161-76. doi: 10.1620/tjem.223.161.
Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) are bipotential progenitor cells that can differentiate into myelin-forming oligodendrocytes or functionally undetermined type II astrocytes. Transplantation of OPCs is an attractive therapy for demyelinating diseases. However, due to their bipotential differentiation potential, the majority of OPCs differentiate into astrocytes at transplanted sites. It is therefore important to understand the molecular mechanisms that regulate the transition from OPCs to oligodendrocytes or astrocytes. In this study, we isolated OPCs from the spinal cords of rat embryos (16 days old) and induced them to differentiate into oligodendrocytes or type II astrocytes in the absence or presence of 10% fetal bovine serum, respectively. RNAs were extracted from each cell population and hybridized to GeneChip with 28,700 rat genes. Using the criterion of fold change > 4 in the expression level, we identified 83 genes that were up-regulated and 89 genes that were down-regulated in oligodendrocytes, and 92 genes that were up-regulated and 86 that were down-regulated in type II astrocytes compared with OPCs. The up-regulated genes, such as activating transcription factor 3 and myelin basic protein in oligodendrocytes or claudin 11 in type II astrocytes, might contribute to OPC differentiation and represent constitutive components of oligodendrocytes or type II astrocytes. The down-regulated genes in both oligodendrocytes and type II astrocytes, such as transcription factor 19, might be involved in maintaining self-renewal and/or represent the property of OPCs. These results provide new insights into the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms, by which OPCs differentiate to oligodendrocytes or type II astrocytes.
少突胶质前体细胞（OPC）是一种具有双重分化潜能的祖细胞，能够分化为形成髓鞘的少突胶质细胞或功能未确定的星形胶质细胞 II 型。OPC 的移植是脱髓鞘疾病的一种有吸引力的治疗方法。然而，由于其双重分化潜能，大多数 OPC 在移植部位分化为星形胶质细胞。因此，了解调节 OPC 向少突胶质细胞或星形胶质细胞转化的分子机制非常重要。在这项研究中，我们从大鼠胚胎（16 天大）的脊髓中分离出 OPC，并在没有或存在 10%胎牛血清的情况下分别诱导它们分化为少突胶质细胞或星形胶质细胞 II 型。从每个细胞群体中提取 RNA，并与带有 28700 个大鼠基因的 GeneChip 杂交。使用表达水平变化倍数>4 的标准，我们鉴定出 83 个在少突胶质细胞中上调和 89 个下调的基因，以及在星形胶质细胞 II 型中上调和 86 个下调的基因与 OPC 相比。上调的基因，如激活转录因子 3 和少突胶质细胞中的髓鞘碱性蛋白，或星形胶质细胞 II 型中的紧密连接蛋白 11，可能有助于 OPC 分化，并代表少突胶质细胞或星形胶质细胞 II 型的组成成分。下调的基因，无论是在少突胶质细胞还是星形胶质细胞 II 型中，如转录因子 19，可能参与维持自我更新和/或代表 OPC 的特性。这些结果为阐明 OPC 分化为少突胶质细胞或星形胶质细胞的分子机制提供了新的见解。
