Oligodendrocyte lineage and the motor neuron connection

Abstract

One of the more surprising recent discoveries in glial biology has been that oligodendrocytes (OLs) originate from very restricted regions of the embryonic neural tube. This was surprising because myelinating OLs are widespread in the mature central nervous system, so there was no reason to suspect that their precursors should be restricted. What we now know about early OL development suggests that they might have as much (or more) in common with ventral neurons-specifically motor neurons (MNs)-as with other types of glia. This has implications for the way we think about glial development, function, and evolution. In this article we review the evidence for a shared MN-OL lineage and debate whether this is the only lineage that generates OLs. We decide in favour of a single embryonic lineage with regional variations along the anterior-posterior neuraxis.

Origin of Oligodendrocytes in the Subventricular Zone of the Adult Brain

“…However, committed glial precursors, like the optic nerve O-2A progenitor, can be manipulated to also generate neurons (Kondo and Raff, 2000). Recent evidence in vivo indicates that neurons and some glial cells are closely related in development and originate from common progenitors in ways that do not fit classical models that separate the neuronal and glial lineages (Williams et al, 1991;Richardson et al, 2000;He et al, 2001;Lu et al, 2002;Zhou and Anderson, 2002;Lui and Rao, 2004;Rowitch, 2004). Consistently, our data suggest that adult SVZ GFAP ϩ cells, which have been shown to function as neuronal precursors, can also give rise to oligodendrocytes.…”

Anti-Human Olig2 Antibody as a Useful Immunohistochemical Marker of Normal Oligodendrocytes and Gliomas

“…Motoneuron and oligodendrocyte lineages are thought to be closely related, and are sequentially generated in the ventral ventricular zone of the embryonic spinal cord during development. 24 Olig1 and Olig2 were first identified as basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors that regulate oligodendroglial development. 9,10 The expression of Olig1 and Olig2 mostly overlaps, however, Olig2 expression in the early spinal cord is higher than that of Olig1, 9,10,25 and Olig2 has a broader expression domain in the embryonic forebrain.…”

Ventral Neural Progenitors Switch toward an Oligodendroglial Fate in Response to Increased Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) Activity: Involvement of Sulfatase 1 in Modulating Shh Signaling in the Ventral Spinal Cord

“…One well described source of oligodendrocyte precursors (OLPs) in the ventral neuroepithelium is the ventral motor neuron progenitor (pMN) domain, composed of Olig-expressing neural progenitors, which generate motoneurons (MNs) during early development of the neural tube (Lu et al, 2000Zhou et al, 2000Zhou et al, , 2001Takebayashi et al, 2002;Zhou and Anderson, 2002). Birthdating studies have clearly shown that MNs and OLs are not produced simultaneously from these progenitors, but that specification of these lineages occurs in two successive waves, with MNs produced first (Richardson et al, 2000;Soula et al, 2001; Rowitch et al, 2002).…”