The use of paramagnetic microbeads for the occlusion of the iridocorneal angle produces a sustained elevation of IOP with fewer injections and avoids the risk of visual axis occlusion. It represents a simple and effective method for the induction of experimental glaucoma.

Reverse signaling via members of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily is increasingly recognized among cells of the immune system where it controls multiple aspects of immune function. Here we document TNFα reverse signaling in the nervous system for the first time and show that it plays a crucial role in establishing sympathetic innervation. During postnatal development, sympathetic axons express TNFα as they grow and branch in their target tissues which in turn express TNFR1. In culture, soluble forms of TNFR1 act directly on postnatal sympathetic axons to promote growth and branching by a mechanism that depends on membrane integrated TNFα and downstream MEK/ERK activation. Sympathetic innervation density is significantly reduced in several tissues in postnatal and adult mice lacking either TNFα or TNFR1. These findings reveal that target-derived TNFR1 acts as a reverse signaling ligand for membrane-integrated TNFα to promote sympathetic axon growth and branching.

BSTRACTSignaling by the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75 NTR , also known as , can be tuned into narrower activity profiles by cell-type-specific differences in intracellular processes, such as proteolytic cleavage, leading to very different biological outcomes.

Cerebellar granule neurons (CGNs) undergo programmed cell death during the first postnatal week of mouse development, coincident with sustained expression of the death receptor p75. Although ablation of p75 does not affect CGN cell death, deletion of the downstream effector RIP2 significantly increases CGN apoptosis, resulting in reduced adult CGN number and impaired behaviors associated with cerebellar function. Remarkably, CGN death is restored to basal levels when p75 is deleted in RIP2-deficient mice. We find that RIP2 gates the signaling output of p75 by competing with TRAF6 for binding to the receptor intracellular domain. In CGNs lacking RIP2, more TRAF6 is associated with p75, leading to increased JNK-dependent apoptosis. In agreement with this, pharmacological inhibition or genetic ablation of TRAF6 restores cell death levels in CGNs lacking RIP2. These results reveal an unexpected mechanism controlling CGN number and highlight how competitive interactions govern the logic of death receptor function.

RANKL (receptor-activator of NF-κB ligand, TNFSF11) is a member of the TNF superfamily that regulates bone remodelling and the development of the thymus, lymph nodes and mammary glands. While RANKL and its membrane bound receptor RANK (TNFRSF11A) are expressed in the adult central nervous system and have been implicated in thermoregulation, the potential function of RANK signalling in the developing nervous system remains unexplored. Here, we show that RANK is expressed by sympathetic and sensory neurons of the developing mouse peripheral nervous system and that activating RANK signalling in these neurons during perinatal development by either treating cultured neurons with soluble RANKL or overexpressing RANK in the neurons inhibited neurotrophin-promoted neurite growth without affecting neurotrophin-promoted neuronal survival. RANKL is expressed in tissues innervated by these neurons, and studies in compartment cultures demonstrated that RANKL is capable of acting directly on neurites to inhibit growth locally. Enhancing RANK signalling in cultured neurons resulted in NF-κB activation and phosphorylation of the p65 NF-κB subunit on serine 536. Transfecting neurons with a series of mutated signalling proteins showed that NF-κB activation and p65 phosphorylation occurred by an IKKβ-dependent mechanism and that blockade of this signalling pathway prevented neurite growth inhibition by RANKL. These findings reveal that RANKL is a novel negative regulator of neurite growth from developing PNS neurons and that it exerts its effects by IKKβ-dependent activation of NF-κB.