The Stem Cell Factor Sox2 Is a Positive Timer of Oligodendrocyte Development in the Postnatal Murine Spinal Cord

Molecular Neurobiology volume 55, pages9001–9015(2018)Cite this article

Abstract

Myelination in the central nervous system takes place predominantly during the postnatal development of humans and rodents by myelinating oligodendrocytes (OLs), which are differentiated from oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). We recently reported that Sox2 is essential for developmental myelination in the murine brain and spinal cord. It is still controversial regarding the role of Sox2 in oligodendroglial lineage progression in the postnatal murine spinal cord. Analyses of a series of cell- and stage-specific Sox2 mutants reveal that Sox2 plays a biphasic role in regulating oligodendroglial lineage progression in the postnatal murine spinal cord. Sox2 controls the number of OPCs for subsequent differentiation through regulating their proliferation. In addition, Sox2 regulates the timing of OL differentiation and modulates the rate of oligodendrogenesis. Our experimental data prove that Sox2 is an intrinsic positive timer of oligodendroglial lineage progression and suggest that interventions affecting oligodendroglial Sox2 expression may be therapeutic for overcoming OPC differentiation arrest in dysmyelinating and demyelinating disorders.

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Acknowledgements

Grant support was from Shriners Hospitals for Children (F.G., S.Z.), 2016YFC0503200 (X. Z.), and NIH (R01NS094559, R21NS093559 to F.G.).

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Institute for Pediatric Regenerative Medicine, Shriners Hospitals for Children/UC Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA, 95817, USA

    Sheng Zhang, Abeer Rasai, Yan Wang, Jie Xu, Peter Bannerman, Daffcar Erol, Danayit Tsegaye, Aijun Wang, Athena Soulika & Fuzheng Guo

  2. Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, UC Davis, Davis, CA, 95817, USA

    Sheng Zhang, Yan Wang & Fuzheng Guo

  3. Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy, School of Medicine, UC Davis, Davis, CA, 95817, USA

    Peter Bannerman

  4. Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, UC Davis, Davis, CA, 95817, USA

    Aijun Wang

  5. Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, UC Davis, Davis, CA, 95817, USA

    Athena Soulika

  6. Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xiangjiang Zhan

  7. Department of Neurology, UC Davis School of Medicine, c/o Shriners Hospitals for Children, Room 601A, 2425 Stockton Blvd, Sacramento, CA, 95817, USA

    Fuzheng Guo

Authors
  1. Sheng Zhang
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  2. Abeer Rasai
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  3. Yan Wang
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Correspondence to Fuzheng Guo.

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Zhang, S., Rasai, A., Wang, Y. et al. The Stem Cell Factor Sox2 Is a Positive Timer of Oligodendrocyte Development in the Postnatal Murine Spinal Cord. Mol Neurobiol 55, 9001–9015 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-018-1035-7

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Keywords

  • Sox2
  • Myelination
  • Oligodendrocyte differentiation
  • Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs)
  • Proliferation
  • Neural stem cells