Localized hypoxia within the SGZ determines the early survival of newborn hippocampal granule cells

Abstract
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Abstract

The majority of adult hippocampal newborn cells die during early differentiation from intermediate progenitors (IPCs) to immature neurons. Neural stem cells in vivo are located in a relative hypoxic environment, and hypoxia enhances their survival, proliferation and stemness in vitro. Thus, we hypothesized that migration of IPCs away from hypoxic zones within the SGZ might result in oxidative damage, thus triggering cell death. Hypoxic niches were observed along the SGZ, composed of adult NSCs and early IPCs, and oxidative byproducts were present in adjacent late IPCs and neuroblasts. Stabilizing hypoxia inducible factor-1α with dimethyloxallyl glycine increased early survival, but not proliferation or differentiation, in neurospheres in vitro and in newly born SGZ cells in vivo. Rescue experiments in Bax^fl/fl mutants supported these results. We propose that localized hypoxia within the SGZ contributes to the neurogenic microenvironment and determines the early, activity-independent survival of adult hippocampal newborn cells.

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Author details

C Chatzi

Vollum Institute, Portland, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
E Schnell

Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
G L Westbrook

Vollum Institute, Portland, United States

For correspondence
westbroo@ohsu.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Reviewing Editor

Lee L Rubin, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard University, United States

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All procedures were performed according to the National Institutes of Health Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and have been conducted with the approval of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (#IP00000148) and the Insitutional Biosafety Committee (#04-06) at Oregon Health and Science University.

Version history

Received: May 14, 2015
Accepted: October 16, 2015
Accepted Manuscript published: October 17, 2015 (version 1)
Version of Record published: December 9, 2015 (version 2)

Copyright

This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.