Differentiation of the head ectoderm is crucial for the evolutionary diversification of vertebrates. Expression of the genes responsible for this process is orchestrated troughout complex gene regulatory networks that are induced and modulated by Wnt, FGF and BMP signaling pathways. In addition, Wnt/β-catenin signaling, in combination with expression of the Wnt antagonists from the rostral-most part of the head ectoderm, represent a key source of information for the regionalization of the tissue along the antero-posterior axis. This allows the differentiation of the anterior ectoderm that gives rise to the anterior neural fold (ANF) and anterior part of the presumptive placodal region (PPR), and more posterior ectoderm where higher levels of active Wnt/β-catenin signaling promote differentiation into the neural crest (NC) and posterior PPR. Although the requirement of Wnt/β-catenin signalling for ANF, PPR and NC development has been intensively studied in non-mammalian vertebrate model organisms, we lack a clear picture about the situation in mammals. Furthermore, current knowledge in mammals has been gathered via experiments on the level of β-catenin and very little is known about the individual roles of the Tcf/Lef transcription factors. Thereby, we decided to manipulate the Tcf7l1, member of the...

The pesticide/neurotoxin, rotenone, has been shown to cause systemic inhibition of mitochondrial complex I activity, with consequent degeneration of the nigrostriatal pathway, as observed in Parkinson’s disease. A novel intrastriatal rotenone model of Parkinson’s disease was used to examine the neuroprotective effects of valproic acid (VPA) and melatonin, both of which are known to induce neurotrophic gene expression in the central nervous system via mechanisms which may involve epigenetic modulation. In these studies, sham or lesioned rats were treated with either vehicle, VPA (4mg/mL), or melatonin (4µg/mL) in drinking water. Results from a forelimb asymmetry test indicated a significant decrease in use of the contralateral forelimb in rotenone-infused animals, in the third week post-surgery, which was abolished by VPA treatment. Apomorphine administration resulted in significantly higher ipsilateral rotation in rotenone-lesioned (12µg) animals, as compared to controls, which was attenuated by melatonin treatment. Subsequent immunohistochemical examination revealed a decrease in tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity within the striatum and substantia nigra of rotenone-infused animals. VPA or melatonin treatment prevented this decrease in tyrosine hydroxylase in the striatum and substantia nigra. Stereological cell counting indicated a significant decrease in dopamine neurons within the substantia nigra of rotenone-treated animals. Importantly, this loss of dopamine neurons in rotenone-infused animals was blocked by chronic VPA or melatonin treatment. A third study explored whether rotenone infusion into the medial forebrain bundle and substantia nigra in mice could provide a model of Parkinson's disease. Densitometric analysis revealed a significant depletion of tyrosine hydroxylase immunofluorescence within the ipsilateral striatum and substantia nigra of lesioned animals, and a significant bilateral overexpression of α-synuclein in the substantia nigra, as compared to control animals. These novel findings support the use of intracranial rotenone as a Parkinsonian model, and provide a solid platform for future combinatorial therapeutic approaches with VPA and melatonin. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The telencephalon is the most highly evolved region of the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS). The major structures of the telencephalon - the cortex and basal ganglia – derive from the dorsally positioned pallium and the ventrally positioned subpallium, respectively. Differences in morphology, gene expression, and connectivity permit a subdivision of the developing telencephalon into domains that give rise to discrete regions of the adult brain. In mammals, the ventral region of the developing telencephalon can be subdivided into the medial (MGE) and lateral (LGE) ganglionic eminences. The dorsal midline cells give rise to the choroid plexus, and cells in the more lateral domain, the dorsal pallium, give rise to the cerebral cortex. Genetic studies have provided evidence that crossregulatory interactions between transcription factors contribute to the regionalization of the telencephalon. Less is known, however, about the secreted signals that induce the initial dorsoventral character of telencephalic cells. Sonic hedgehog (SHH) is required for the specification of ventral character along the entire anteroposterior (AP) extent of the developing CNS, including the telencephalon. We show that WNT activity imposes an early generic dorsal telencephalic character and that Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) act sequentially, and in concert with WNT, to specify cells of definitive dorsal telencephalic character. We also show that retinoic acid (RA)-mediated signaling induces intermediate character in telencephalic cells, and that FGFs maintain cells of ventral character by opposing RA activity. The following model emerges from these findings. At gastrula stages, most or all prospective telencephalic cells become specified as ventral cells in response to node-derived SHH signals. At neural fold- and early neural plate stages, cells in the prospective dorsal and intermediate regions of the telencephalon cells are exposed to WNT signaling that induce a generic dorsal character. The head ectoderm adjacent to the telencephalon then starts to express the retinoic acid producing enzyme, Raldh3, thus exposing telencephalic cells to RA signals. At the same time prospective dorsal cells start to express WNT signals. RA signaling appears to promote the generation of intermediate/prestriatal cells, whereas WNT signal suppress the actions of RA on dorsal cells, which therefore maintain their dorsal character. From the neural plate stage, prospective ventral 6 telencephalic cells are exposed to FGF8 derived from the anterior neural ridge, and FGF8 maintains ventral telencephalic character by opposing the influence of RA signals in ventral cells. At early neural tube stages, the domain of Fgf8 expression expands dorsally and FGF signals derived from the dorsal midline region induce definitive dorsal/precortical cells. In the intermediate region of the telencephalon cells evade high levels of WNT and FGF signals, resulting in an environment in which RA signaling is able to induce prestriatal character.

When a multicellular organism suffers damages to tissues/organs it heals itself by either substituting the lost cellular matrix by scar formation or by regenerating the lost tissue. Regeneration likely occurs by a recapitulation of the developmental process that formed the organ. Many processes regulating organ development are based on epithelial-mesenchymal interactions and a strict control of organ specific stem/progenitor cells. Elucidation of the molecular basis of these processes is therefore vital in order to develop novel therapies in regenerative medicine. The LIM homebox gene Lhx2 is interesting in this context since Lhx2 has been shown to be important for the formation of several organs by regulating epithelial-mesenchymal interactions and progenitor cell function. Targeted inactivation of Lhx2 leads to a lethal anemia due to malformed liver and severe neural abnormalities such as hypoplasia of the forebrain and anophtalmia. Thus, elucidation of the mechanisms of the function of Lhx2 in different organ systems would give important insights into the molecular mechanisms regulating epithelial-mesenchymal interactions and stem/progenitor cell function. To elucidate the function of Lhx2 in the hematopoietic system Lhx2 was initially expressed in hematopoietic progenitor cells derived from ES cells differentiated in vitro using retroviral vectors. This approach led to the generation of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)-like cell lines suggesting that Lhx2 could impact HSC function. However neither the specificity nor the efficiency of the Lhx2-induced phenotype could be determined using this approach. To be able to elucidate the function of Lhx2 in the hematopoietic system, an ES cell line with inducible Lhx2 expression was generated. Lhx2 expression induces self-renewal of a distinct hematopoietic progenitor cell from which HSC-like cell lines were established. Down-regulation of Lhx2 in these HSC-like cell lines leads to a rapid loss of stem cell character, providing a good model to study the molecular function of Lhx2 in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. A global gene expression analysis was performed comparing the Lhx2+ stem cell population to the Lhx2- differentiated progeny. This approach identified genes putatively linked to self-renewal/differentiation of HSCs. A considerable proportion of the genes showed an overlapping gene expression pattern with Lhx2 expression in tissue of non-hematopoietic origin suggesting that Lhx2 function in stem/progenitor cells partly overlap with Lhx2 function during organ development. In order to define other Lhx2-dependent progenitor cell populations and to generate a tool to analyze the function of Lhx2 in organ development a new transgenic mouse model was generated. By using a specific part of the Lhx2 promoter to drive expression of Cre recombinase in vivo (Lhx2-Cre mice) we have been able to define the first eye committed progenitor cells in the forebrain. By using the Lhx2-Cre mice it will be possible to distinguish the function of genes during eye development from their function in the patterning of the forebrain e.g. the eye field transcription factors. Conditional inactivation of Lhx2 in these eye specific progenitor cells causes an immediate developmental arrest. The transgene is also active in Lhx2-/- embryonic forebrain, but re-expression of Lhx2 in Lhx2-/- progenitor cells only promote formation of retinal pigment epithelium cells. Analysis of genes expressed by the Lhx2+ stem cell population allowed us to define novel genes putatively linked to Lhx2 function in eye development. Thus, we have defined the progenitor cells in the forebrain committed to eye development and the expansion and patterning of these progenitors are dependent on Lhx2. Although commitment to eye development is Lhx2-independent, Lhx2 might be important for the acquisition of the oligopotent fate of these progenitor cells.

Investigating the properties and mechanisms of coordination among neurons plays an important role in understanding how the brain encodes information and performs in thalamocortical processing in the auditory system. Whether the coordinated neuronal spikes in the auditory thalamus enhance the thalamocortical communications in the auditory cortex (AC) is the main concern in this project. Researchers are mostly focusing on the investigation of the V1 and V2 in visual system and corticortical circuits in auditory system using neuronal pairwise correlations as the method. However, what we explored in this project is the coordination among neurons in thalamocortical circuits. we applied the Jensen-Shannon divergence method to measure the similarity between two distributions and analyze the coordination in thalamus neurons and different parts of AC in ascending pathway and descending pathway of auditory system respectively. At the same time, we designed an algorithm to calculated spiking coordination. The result shows that the coordination pattern differs in separate pathway when keeping sound stimulation and basal forebrain (BF) stimulation on or off. In ascending pathway, the coordination in thalamus neurons precedes information to AC when the brain is silent, keeping sound and BF stimulation off. In descending pathway, the coordination mainly in the superficial area of AC precedes information to thalamus. The coordination is lower in the case of keeping sound on. In the future, more data on rats can be verified using our method and algorithm to investigate the coordinated spikes in auditory system. / Att undersöka egenskaperna och mekanismerna för koordination mellan neuroner spelar en viktig roll för att förstå hur hjärnan kodar information och fungerar i talamokortikal bearbetning i hörselsystemet. Huruvida de koordinerade neuronala spikarna i den auditiva thalamus förstärker den talamokortikala kommunikationen i den auditiva cortex (AC) är huvudproblemet i detta projekt. Forskare fokuserar mestadels på undersökningen av V1 och V2 i visuella system och kortikokortikala kretsar i hörselsystemet med hjälp av neuronala parvisa korrelationer som metod. Men vad vi utforskade i detta projekt är koordinationen mellan neuroner i talamokortikala kretsar. vi tillämpade Jensen-Shannon-divergensmetoden för att mäta likheten mellan två distributioner och analysera koordinationen i thalamusneuroner och olika delar av AC i stigande bana respektive fallande bana i hörselsystemet. Samtidigt designade vi en algoritm för att beräkna spikkoordination. Resultatet visar att koordinationsmönstret skiljer sig åt i separata vägar när ljudstimulering och basal framhjärnsstimulering (BF) hålls på eller av. I stigande väg föregår koordinationen i talamusneuroner information till AC när hjärnan är tyst, vilket håller ljud och BF-stimulering borta. I fallande väg föregår koordinationen huvudsakligen i det ytliga området av AC information till thalamus. Koordinationen är lägre när det gäller att hålla ljud på. I framtiden kan mer data om råttor verifieras med vår metod och algoritm för att undersöka de samordnade spikarna i hörselsystemet.

The exact role of opioid receptors in drug addiction and modulatory mechanism of action of monovalent cations on these receptors are still not fully understood. Our results support the view that the mechanism of addiction to morphine is primarily based on desensitization of μ- and δ-opioid receptors. Desenzitization of agonist response proceeds already at the level of G protein functional activity. Long-term exposure of rats to morphine resulted in increase of number of δ-opioid receptors and change of their sensitivity to sodium ions. Analysis of the effect of different monovalent ions on agonist binding in δ-OR- Gi1α (Cys351 -Ile351 )-HEK293 cell line confirmed the preferential sensitivity of δ-opioid receptor to sodium ions. We have distinguished the high- and low-affinity Na+ sites. Biophysical analysis of interaction of lithium, sodium, potassium and cesium ions with plasma membranes isolated from HEK293 cells with the help of fluorescent probes indicated that monovalent ions interact, in low-affinity manner, with the polar, membrane-water interface of membrane bilayer. Key words: morphine, forebrain cortex, opioid receptors, G proteins, monovalent ions, plasma membrane, fluorescence spectroscopy.

The exact role of opioid receptors in drug addiction and modulatory mechanism of action of monovalent cations on these receptors are still not fully understood. Our results support the view that the mechanism of addiction to morphine is primarily based on desensitization of μ- and δ-opioid receptors. Desenzitization of agonist response proceeds already at the level of G protein functional activity. Long-term exposure of rats to morphine resulted in increase of number of δ-opioid receptors and change of their sensitivity to sodium ions. Analysis of the effect of different monovalent ions on agonist binding in δ-OR- Gi1α (Cys351 -Ile351 )-HEK293 cell line confirmed the preferential sensitivity of δ-opioid receptor to sodium ions. We have distinguished the high- and low-affinity Na+ sites. Biophysical analysis of interaction of lithium, sodium, potassium and cesium ions with plasma membranes isolated from HEK293 cells with the help of fluorescent probes indicated that monovalent ions interact, in low-affinity manner, with the polar, membrane-water interface of membrane bilayer. Key words: morphine, forebrain cortex, opioid receptors, G proteins, monovalent ions, plasma membrane, fluorescence spectroscopy.

Basal forebrain cholinergic neurons (BFCNs) are critical for learning and memory. Profound and early BFCN degeneration is a hallmark of aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). BFCNs depend for their survival on the retrograde axonal transport of neurotrophins, proteins critical for neuronal function. Neurotrophins like brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and pro-nerve growth factor (proNGF) are retrogradely transported to BFCNs from their synaptic targets. In AD, neurotrophin levels are increased within BFCN target areas and reduced in the basal forebrain, implicating dysfunctional neurotrophin transport in AD pathogenesis. However, neurotrophin transport within this highly susceptible neuronal population is currently poorly understood. We began by establishing protocols for the accurate quantification of axonal transport in BFCNs using microfluidic culture. We then determined the effect of age on neurotrophin transport. BFCNs were left in culture for up to 3 weeks to model aging in vitro. BFCNs initially displayed robust neurotrophin transport, which diminished with in vitro age. We observed that the levels of proNGF receptor tropomyosin-related kinase-A (TrkA) were reduced in aged neurons. Additionally, neurotrophin transport in BFCNs derived from 3xTg-AD mice, an AD model, was also impaired. Next, we sought to determine a mechanism for these transport deficits. First, we determined that proNGF transport was solely contingent upon the levels of TrkA. We then found that elevation of oxidative stress, an established AD contributor, significantly reduced both TrkA levels and proNGF retrograde transport. TrkA levels are partially regulated by protein tyrosine phosphatase-1B (PTP1B), an enzyme whose activity is reduced by oxidation. PTP1B antagonism significantly reduced TrkA levels and proNGF retrograde transport in BFCNs. Treatment of BFCNs with PTP1B-activating antioxidants rescued TrkA levels, proNGF transport, and proNGF-mediated axonal degeneration. Our results suggest that oxidative stress contributes to BFCN degeneration in aging and AD by impairing retrograde neurotrophin transport via oxidative PTP1B-mediated TrkA loss. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / During aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the connections between neurons, a type of brain cell, break down, causing memory loss. This breakdown begins in a brain area called the basal forebrain. Basal forebrain neurons rely upon the transport of nutrients along their connections with other neurons, called axons, for proper function. This transport process becomes impaired in AD. Our goal was to understand why this happens. First, we determined that axonal transport was impaired with age and in basal forebrain neurons of mice genetically predisposed to develop AD. We recreated these impairments by increasing the levels of harmful molecules called reactive oxidative species (ROS). ROS levels increase with age and become abnormally high during AD. We found that increased ROS impair axonal transport and contribute to the breakdown of basal forebrain neurons. Our work suggests that reducing ROS will help prevent the breakdown of basal forebrain neurons in AD.

Le système cholinergique est impliqué dans les phénomènes d’attention, de mémoire et d’apprentissage et les récepteurs cholinergiques régulent de multiples fonctions du système nerveux central. Néanmoins, leur rôle au niveau de la modulation des propriétés du cortex visuel reste à être établi. L’un des objectifs de cette thèse était d’étudier le rôle des récepteurs muscariniques impliqués dans le fonctionnement normal du cortex visuel. Nous avons pu déterminer que les récepteurs muscariniques sont impliqués dans l’établissement de nombreuses propriétés visuelles telles la taille des champs récepteurs, la sensibilité au contraste, la sélectivité à la fréquence spatiale et la finesse de la connectivité corticale. L’autre objectif était d’identifier les récepteurs cholinergiques impliqués dans la potentiation des capacités visuelles. Nous avons amélioré le traitement cognitif de l’information visuelle par stimulation électrique du télencéphale basal (noyau où sont localisés les corps cellulaires cholinergiques) et par la stimulation cholinergique par le donépézil, un inhibiteur de l’acétylcholinestérase. La combinaison répétée d’une stimulation visuelle et cholinergique (qu’elle soit électrique ou pharmacologique) améliore similairement l’activité corticale visuelle. Toutefois, les récepteurs impliqués ne sont pas les mêmes. Suite à la stimulation pharmacologique, ce sont principalement les récepteurs muscariniques qui influencent l’acuité visuelle de manière tardive et cette modulation est plus précoce lors de la stimulation électrique. Ces résultats démontrent que le couplage répétitif d’une stimulation cholinergique et d’une stimulation visuelle est en mesure d’améliorer l’activité corticale visuelle. Le fait de connaître les récepteurs cholinergiques impliqués permettra dans un futur proche de les cibler directement pour améliorer la fonction corticale. / The cholinergic system is involved in attention, learning and memory and cholinergic receptors regulate multiple functions of the central nervous system. Nevertheless, their role in modulating the properties of the visual cortex remains to be established. One of the objectives of this thesis was to study the role of muscarinic receptors involved in the normal function of the visual cortex. We have been able to determine that the muscarinic receptors are involved in the establishment of many visual properties such as the size of the receptor fields, contrast sensitivity, spatial frequency selectivity and accuracy of the cortical connectivity. The other objective was to identify the cholinergic receptors involved in the potentiation of visual abilities. We improved the cognitive processing of visual information by electrical stimulation of the basal forebrain (the nucleus where the cholinergic cell bodies are located) and by cholinergic stimulation using donepezil, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. The repeated combination of visual and cholinergic stimulations (whether electrical or pharmacological) similarly enhances visual cortical activity. However, the receptors involved are not the same. Following the pharmacological stimulation, it is mainly the muscarinic receptors that influence visual acuity with a delay in the receptors expression and this modulation is earlier for the electrical stimulation. These results demonstrate that repetitive coupling of cholinergic stimulation and visual stimulation can enhance visual cortical activity. Knowing the cholinergic receptors involved will allow in a near future to target them directly to improve cortical function.

No description available.