Structure of Neuroglobin from Cold-Water Sponge Halisarca dujardinii

Molecular Biology - The iron-containing protein neuroglobin (Ngb) involved in the transport of oxygen is generally considered the precursor of all animal globins. In this report, we studied the...     

Non-canonical functions of the peripheral nerve

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is complex and omnipresent. The PNS targets all parts of the body starting from early stages of embryonic development, and in large part, is derived from multipotent migratory neural crest stem cells. Current opinion mostly perceives the PNS as a means of communication and information exchange between the central nervous system, the rest of the body and the environment. Additionally, the PNS is largely associated with autonomic control. Being an “alternative brain” it provides local regulation of processes in organs. However, it has become evident in recent years that in addition to these main canonical functions the PNS possesses a number of other important roles in development and homeostasis of targeted tissues, for instance, in nerve-dependent regeneration. The PNS represents a niche that hosts neural crest-derived peripheral glial cells, or, in other words, neural crest-like multipotent cells throughout the entire body. These multipotent nerve-adjacent cells can be reprogrammed in vivo and play a number of roles from creating pigmentation to controlling regeneration of a limb in amphibians or skin in rodents. In the current review we outline newly emerged, non-canonical functions of the PNS and briefly describe cellular and molecular aspects of these alternative functions.     

Generation and characterization of DSPP‐Cerulean/DMP1‐Cherry reporter mice

To gain a better understanding of the progression of progenitor cells in the odontoblast lineage, we have examined and characterized the expression of a series of GFP reporters during odontoblast differentiation. However, previously reported GFP reporters (pOBCol2.3‐GFP, pOBCol3.6‐GFP, and DMP1‐GFP), similar to the endogenous proteins, are also expressed by bone‐forming cells, which made it difficult to delineate the two cell types in various in vivo and in vitro studies. To overcome these difficulties we generated DSPP‐Cerulean/DMP1‐Cherry transgenic mice using a bacterial recombination strategy with the mouse BAC clone RP24‐258g7. We have analyzed the temporal and spatial expression of both transgenes in tooth and bone in vivo and in vitro. This transgenic animal enabled us to visualize the interactions between odontoblasts and surrounding tissues including dental pulp, ameloblasts and cementoblasts. Our studies showed that DMP1‐Cherry, similar to Dmp1, was expressed in functional and fully differentiated odontoblasts as well as osteoblasts, osteocytes and cementoblasts. Expression of DSPP‐Cerulean transgene was limited to functional and fully differentiated odontoblasts and correlated with the expression of Dspp. This transgenic animal can help in the identification and isolation of odontoblasts at later stages of differentiation and help in better understanding of developmental disorders in dentin and odontoblasts.