Department of Zoology, Life Sciences Institute and International Collaboration On Repair Discoveries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e24538. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0024538. Epub 2011 Sep 12.
Radial glia (RG) are primarily embryonic neuroglial progenitors that express Brain Lipid Binding Protein (Blbp a.k.a. Fabp7) and Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (Gfap). We used these transcripts to demarcate the distribution of spinal cord radial glia (SCRG) and screen for SCRG gene expression in the Allen Spinal Cord Atlas (ASCA). We reveal that neonatal and adult SCRG are anchored in a non-ventricular niche at the spinal cord (SC) pial boundary, and express a "signature" subset of 122 genes, many of which are shared with "classic" neural stem cells (NSCs) of the subventricular zone (SVZ) and SC central canal (CC). A core expressed gene set shared between SCRG and progenitors of the SVZ and CC is particularly enriched in genes associated with human disease. Visualizing SCRG in a Fabp7-EGFP reporter mouse reveals an extensive population of SCRG that extend processes around the SC boundary and inwardly (through) the SC white matter (WM), whose abundance increases in a gradient from cervical to lumbar SC. Confocal analysis of multiple NSC-enriched proteins reveals that postnatal SCRG are a discrete and heterogeneous potential progenitor population that become activated by multiple SC lesions, and that CC progenitors are also more heterogeneous than previously appreciated. Gene ontology analysis highlights potentially unique regulatory pathways that may be further manipulated in SCRG to enhance repair in the context of injury and SC disease.
放射状胶质细胞（RG）是主要的胚胎神经胶质前体细胞，表达脑脂质结合蛋白（Blbp，又名 Fabp7）和胶质纤维酸性蛋白（Gfap）。我们使用这些转录本来划定脊髓放射状胶质细胞（SCRG）的分布，并在 Allen 脊髓图谱（ASCA）中筛选 SCRG 的基因表达。我们揭示了新生和成年 SCRG 锚定在脊髓（SC）软脑膜边界的非脑室龛位，并表达“特征”子集的 122 个基因，其中许多与脑室下区（SVZ）和 SC 中央管（CC）的“经典”神经干细胞（NSC）共享。SCRG 与 SVZ 和 CC 祖细胞之间共享的核心表达基因集在与人类疾病相关的基因中特别丰富。在 Fabp7-EGFP 报告小鼠中可视化 SCRG 揭示了大量的 SCRG，其延伸过程围绕着 SC 边界并向内（穿过）SC 白质（WM），其丰度从颈段到腰段 SC 逐渐增加。对多个 NSC 富集蛋白的共聚焦分析表明，产后 SCRG 是一个离散的和异质的潜在祖细胞群体，可被多个 SC 损伤激活，并且 CC 祖细胞也比以前认为的更加异质。基因本体分析突出了潜在的独特调控途径，这些途径可能在 SCRG 中进一步被操纵，以增强损伤和 SC 疾病背景下的修复。
