Jungers Center for Neurosciences Research, Department of Neurology, Oregon Health and Science University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR 97239, USA.
Cell Death Dis. 2017 Feb 23;8(2):e2623. doi: 10.1038/cddis.2017.40.
Neuronal damage induced by injury, stroke, or neurodegenerative disease elicits swift immune responses from glial cells, including altered gene expression, directed migration to injury sites, and glial clearance of damaged neurons through phagocytic engulfment. Collectively, these responses hinder further cellular damage, but the mechanisms that underlie these important protective glial reactions are still unclear. Here, we show that the evolutionarily conserved trimeric protein phosphatase 4 (PP4) serine/threonine phosphatase complex is a novel set of factors required for proper glial responses to nerve injury in the adult Drosophila brain. Glial-specific knockdown of PP4 results in reduced recruitment of glia to severed axons and delayed glial clearance of degenerating axonal debris. We show that PP4 functions downstream of the the glial engulfment receptor Draper to drive glial morphogenesis through the guanine nucleotide exchange factor SOS and the Rho GTPase Rac1, revealing that PP4 molecularly couples Draper to Rac1-mediated cytoskeletal remodeling to ensure glial infiltration of injury sites and timely removal of damaged neurons from the CNS.
神经元损伤、中风或神经退行性疾病引起的神经元损伤会引发神经胶质细胞迅速的免疫反应,包括基因表达的改变、向损伤部位的定向迁移以及通过吞噬作用清除受损神经元。总的来说,这些反应阻止了进一步的细胞损伤,但这些重要的保护神经胶质反应的机制仍不清楚。在这里,我们表明,进化上保守的三聚体蛋白磷酸酶 4(PP4)丝氨酸/苏氨酸磷酸酶复合物是一组新的因子,对于成年果蝇大脑中神经损伤的适当神经胶质反应是必需的。PP4 的神经胶质特异性敲低导致神经胶质向切断的轴突的募集减少,并且对退化的轴突碎片的神经胶质清除延迟。我们表明,PP4 作为吞噬受体 Draper 的下游因子发挥作用,通过鸟嘌呤核苷酸交换因子 SOS 和 Rho GTPase Rac1 驱动神经胶质形态发生,揭示了 PP4 将 Draper 分子连接到 Rac1 介导的细胞骨架重塑上,以确保神经胶质渗透到损伤部位,并及时从中枢神经系统中清除受损神经元。