Regulation of actin filament assembly and disassembly in growth cone motility and axon guidance

Enhanced axon outgrowth of spinal motor neurons in co-culturing with dorsal root ganglions antagonizes the growth inhibitory environment

“…To our knowledge, axon outgrowth is guided by growth cones which control the activity of actin-binding proteins (ABP) via intracellular signaling cascades. ABP emerged as critical regulators of axon growth and synaptic formation by controlling filamentous actin (F-actin) dynamics [ 38 , 39 ]. The promotion of axon elongation by co-culture is probably related to changes of expression in ABP (e.g., profilin and cofilin), which are regulated by RhoA and its downstream kinase, ROCK.…”

Non-muscle myosin II regulates presynaptic actin assemblies and neuronal mechanobiology

“…In cultured neurons, growth cones are the most distal tip of growing axons. They are also dynamic, F-actin-rich structures heavily depended on regulated actin polymerization/depolymerization cycles 70 . Interestingly, growth cones collapse, along with decrease in the F-actin levels and SMC disorganization, are early events in both axotomy and nerve growth factor withdrawal (NGFW)-induced axonal degeneration paradigms 66, 71 Moreover, the abundance of actin trails also declined at the early stages of NGFW, further supporting the idea that remodeling of actin assemblies is a major component of axonal degeneration 66 .…”