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Tanycytes of the hypothalamic median eminence form a diet-responsive neurogenic niche

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Abstract

Adult hypothalamic neurogenesis has recently been reported, but the cell of origin and the function of these newborn neurons are unknown. Using genetic fate mapping, we found that median eminence tanycytes generate newborn neurons. Blocking this neurogenesis altered the weight and metabolic activity of adult mice. These findings reveal a previously unreported neurogenic niche in the mammalian hypothalamus with important implications for metabolism.

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Figure 1: Hypothalamic proliferative zone.
Figure 2: The median eminence is a neurogenic niche.
Figure 3: Median eminence neurogenesis regulates metabolism.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Nathans, S. Hattar, N. Gaiano, P. Achanta, C. Montojo, D. McClellan, T. Shimogori, T. Moran, E. Newman, M. Taylor and W. Yap for comments on the manuscript. We also thank M. Bonaguidi, C. Montojo, J. Reyes, M. Armour, E. Velarde, N. Forbes-McBean, W.F. Han and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Microscope Facility for technical advice and assistance. This work was supported by US National Institutes of Health grant F31 NS063550 and an NSF Graduate Fellowship (to D.A.L.), a Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Award and grants from the Klingenstein Fund and NARSAD (to S.B.). S.B. is a W.M. Keck Distinguished Young Scholar in Medical Research.

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Author notes

  1. Joseph L Bedont and Thomas Pak: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Daniel A Lee, Joseph L Bedont, Thomas Pak, Hong Wang, Ana Miranda-Angulo, Vani Takiar, Vanessa Charubhumi, Susan Aja & Seth Blackshaw

  2. Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Daniel A Lee, Juan Song & Seth Blackshaw

  3. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Juan Song & Seth Blackshaw

  4. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia

    Ana Miranda-Angulo

  5. Neuroscience Program, Smilow Research Center, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Francesca Balordi & Gordon Fishell

  6. Department of Cell Biology, Smilow Research Center, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Francesca Balordi & Gordon Fishell

  7. Division of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan

    Hirohide Takebayashi

  8. Center for Metabolism and Obesity Research, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Susan Aja

  9. Department of Radiation Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Eric Ford

  10. Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Seth Blackshaw

  11. Center for High-Throughput Biology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Seth Blackshaw

Authors
  1. Daniel A Lee
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  2. Joseph L Bedont
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  3. Thomas Pak
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  4. Hong Wang
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  5. Juan Song
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  6. Ana Miranda-Angulo
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  7. Vani Takiar
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  8. Vanessa Charubhumi
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  9. Francesca Balordi
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  10. Hirohide Takebayashi
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  11. Susan Aja
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  12. Eric Ford
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  13. Gordon Fishell
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  14. Seth Blackshaw
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Contributions

D.A.L. and S.B. designed experiments. D.A.L., J.L.B., T.P., V.T., J.S., H.W., A.M.A., E.F., V.C. and S.A. performed experiments. D.A.L., J.L.B., T.P., A.M.A., V.C., S.A. and S.B. analyzed data. F.B., H.T. and G.F. contributed transgenic mice. D.A.L. and S.B. wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seth Blackshaw.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–7 and Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 (PDF 2410 kb)

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Lee, D., Bedont, J., Pak, T. et al. Tanycytes of the hypothalamic median eminence form a diet-responsive neurogenic niche. Nat Neurosci 15, 700–702 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3079

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3079

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