Nishiyama exam Flashcards
What is the main difference between glial cells and neurons?
they cannot transmit electrical signals. No AP
What are the two main classes of glial cells?
microglia and macroglia
what are the characteristics of microglia? When do they appear? Where do they arise?
small, arise from the mesoderm, and appear around E9.5. They are phagocytic and collect cell debris
What are the characteristics of macroglia? what are the types? where do they arise?
They are larger and arise from the neural ectoderm (neural tube), the two types are astrocytes and oligodendrocytes
Where were microglia thought to arise from? why was this flawed?
They were first thought to arise from monocytes however, this system expands at E13 which is after the first time microglia are found
what do microglia actually arise from? How was this determined?
from a lineage of cells in the yolk sac called blood islands. Some cells here expressed CSFR1, which is found in microglia. They made a CSFIR inducible cre mouse, and a lacz reporter, and induced at E7.5 in the yolk sac. at E9.5 there were marked cells in the brain that were determined to be microglia.
Describe the movement of cells from blood islands into the brain?
they enter the blood stream and gather outside the surface, and then invade. Bone marrow derived cells help later in development
What are the two types of astrocytes?
fibrous and protoplasmic
what are fibrous astrocytes?
in white matter, have abundant glial filaments
what are proteoplasmic astrocytes?
found in grey matter, few glial fragments, more bushy
what type of filaments are found in astrocytes? What are they made from?
intermediate filiments that are made from GFAP
are the filaments found in astrocytes heterogeneous?
yes, they are cell type specific, but are mainly composed of alpha GFAP
how can astrocytes be visualized?
injecting a soluble dye
what is a good marker of astrocytes?
Aldh1l1
Where are astrocytes found?
Astrocytes form the glia limitans below the pial surface • Astrocytes extend endfeet on capillaries • Astrocytes surround synapses
what is the role of astrocytes?
pottasium homeostasis and NT clearing
what is the origin of astrocytes?
radial glia: later in development (they generate neuroblasts first then form astrocytes) - generated after neurogenesis confiremed by giast electroporation
local proliferation
SVZ progenitor cells
What did STAR-TRACK labeling using a piggy back transposon show?
Different populations of VZ radial glial led to different populations of astrocytes. Astrocytes dont mix. There are regional functional differences between astrocytes
What are the characteristics of an immature myelinated sheath?
more widespread, not fully myelinated
what are the characterisitcs of a mature myelinated sheath?
more specific
What forms oligodendrocytes?
NG2 cells in the VZ (form oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, or self renew).
Also can come from oligodendrocyte precursors
PMN and P2 in the neural tube- develops motor neurons then generates oligodendrocytes via SHH concentration gradient
Describe the olig2 induction pathway
SHH -> Olig2 induction-> binds to 5’ flanking region of sox9/10gene -> increased transcription. Sox9 binds to Pdgfa which is a growth factor for oligodendrocyte precursor cells.
How was programmed cell death discovered?
the effect of limb buds on the number of motor neurons. Removed a limb bud-> fewer motor neurons, add limb bud-> greater motor neurons.
What were the two hypothesis for programmed cell death?
recruitment hypothesis and the neurotropic hypothesis
what is the recruitment hypothesis?
more precursor cells are recruited for each limb bud. get recruited based on more need.
how was the recruitment hypothesis refuted?
not a lot of evidence for increased mitotic figures in precursor cells with added limb bud
what is the neurotrophic hypothesis?
increased number of degenerating cells after removing a limb bud.
how was the neurotrophic hypothesis supported?
increased numbers of dark cells- cells that look like degenerating cells.
what does the neurotrophic hypothesis mean about normal development? What does it suggest is present
some degeneration in normal limbs, amount of neurons coorilates to amount of tissue. there might be a trophic factor from tissue that promotes survival.
Why is apoptosis considered an active process?
it involves RNA and protein synthesis to occur, cant occur spontaneously.
what are the steps of apoptosis
- mild convolution, chromatin compaction and margination, and condensation of cytoplasm
- breakup of nuclear envelope, nuclear fragmentation, blebbing, cell fragmentation
- phagocytosis
How do you test for apoptosis?
by DNA fragmentation
- genomic DNA on gel shows fragmentation
Can use TUNEL- labelled terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase
- binds to 3’ end of NICKs -> flourecense when DNA is fragmented
How do you test for the magnitude of cell death?
viable cell test- look at number of viable cells during development
count number of dying cells
coorilate graphs together, and should overlap
What was the experimental design to determine if the trophic factor used to promote survival is soluble or contact mediated? What was the determination?
A sarcoma tissue was found that promotes survival of sympathetic neurons and DRG. Put tumor outside of embryo. If diffusible it will still cause increased survival in the embryo. If contact mediated it wont. It was determined to be diffusible
What was the experimental design to determine if the trophic factor that promotes survival is a protein, lipid or nucleic acid? What was the result?
heat sample-> protein would denature
Organic solvent-> lipid would dissolve
Snake venum-> nucleic acid
snake venom lead to an increase in survival and trophic factor.
What is a mouse analog to snake venom?
Salivary gland, potent factor in salivary gland found to be nerve growth factor (NGF)
How do you test to see if NGF is necessary and sufficient?
inject NGF and look for increased nerve growth
inject inhibitory antibody for NGF and look for decreased nerve growth
What are the characteristics of NGF?
translated as pro-form and then truncated into mature beta NGF that dimerizes. It is present in restricted areas,
what does NGF bind to?
TRK receptors (tyrosine kinase) with high affinity and P75ntr with low affinity
what are receptor tyrosine kinases?
enzyme linked receptors, activated by autophosphorylation. Recruit different molecules