Abstract
For the last several decades, there has been little debate over the origins of central and peripheral glia. Central nervous system (CNS) glia, including oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and radial glia, are specified from CNS neural precursors[1], whereas peripheral nervous system (PNS) glia, including Schwann cells and satellite glia, are derivatives of the neural crest [2]. However, this strict delineation of central versus peripheral glia is being challenged, and the implications could revolutionize human medicine. In the February issue of PLOS Genetics, Weider and colleagues report that a cell population with characteristics very similar to CNS oligodendrocytes can arise from satellite glia in the periphery with only the overexpression of a single transcription factor [3]. This work, in conjunction with several other recent papers [4–7], has us not only peering through Alice’s looking glass but also crossing straight through.
Highlights
Decades of careful fate-mapping and lineage tracing has left us with the conclusion that the myelinating glia of the Central nervous system (CNS), oligodendrocytes, are derived from spinal cord neural precursors [8]
These oligodendrocyte-like cells in the DRG expressed Nkx2.2, Myrf, Plp1, and Mbp, but not Sox9, Pdgfra, and NG2, demonstrating that the conversion cascade in satellite glia is distinct from oligodendrogensis in the CNS (Fig. 1A and B)
In Multiple Sclerosis (MS), repeated immune activation and attack of CNS myelin eventually leads to a loss of oligodendrocytes. Attempted regeneration of this cell population is observed in many models of this disease, eventually, remyelination fails. These studies presented by Weider and colleagues describe, for the first time, the overexpression of a single transcription factor and its ability to convert satellite glia in the DRG into oligodendrocyte-like cells in vivo
Summary
For the last several decades, there has been little debate over the origins of central and peripheral glia. Central nervous system (CNS) glia, including oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and radial glia, are specified from CNS neural precursors[1], whereas peripheral nervous system (PNS) glia, including Schwann cells and satellite glia, are derivatives of the neural crest [2]. This strict delineation of central versus peripheral glia is being challenged, and the implications could revolutionize human medicine. In the February issue of PLOS Genetics, Weider and colleagues report that a cell population with characteristics very similar to CNS oligodendrocytes can arise from satellite glia in the periphery with only the overexpression of a single transcription factor [3]. This work, in conjunction with several other recent papers [4,5,6,7], has us peering through Alice’s looking glass and crossing straight through
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