Microglial transglutaminase-2 drives myelination and myelin repair via GPR56/ADGRG1 in oligodendrocyte precursor cells

  1. Stefanie Giera
  2. Rong Luo
  3. Yanqin Ying
  4. Sarah D Ackerman
  5. Sung-Jin Jeong
  6. Hannah M Stoveken
  7. Christopher J Folts
  8. Christina A Welsh
  9. Gregory G Tall
  10. Beth Stevens
  11. Kelly R Monk  Is a corresponding author
  12. Xianhua Piao  Is a corresponding author
  1. Boston Children's Hospital, United States
  2. Washington University School of Medicine, United States
  3. University of Michigan Medical Center, United States

Abstract

In the central nervous system (CNS), myelin formation and repair are regulated by oligodendrocyte (OL) lineage cells, which sense and integrate signals from their environment, including from other glial cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM). The signaling pathways that coordinate this complex communication, however, remain poorly understood. The adhesion G protein-coupled receptor ADGRG1 (also known as ADGRG1) is an evolutionarily conserved regulator of OL development in humans, mice, and zebrafish, although its activating ligand for OL lineage cells is unknown. Here, we report that microglia-derived transglutaminase-2 (TG2) signals to ADGRG1 on OL precursor cells (OPCs) in the presence of the ECM protein laminin and that TG2/laminin-dependent activation of ADGRG1 promotes OPC proliferation. Signaling by TG2/laminin to ADGRG1 on OPCs additionally improves remyelination in two murine models of demyelination. These findings identify a novel glia-to-glia signaling pathway that promotes myelin formation and repair, and suggest new strategies to enhance remyelination.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Stefanie Giera

    Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Rong Luo

    Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Yanqin Ying

    Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  4. Sarah D Ackerman

    Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. Sung-Jin Jeong

    Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  6. Hannah M Stoveken

    Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  7. Christopher J Folts

    Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0448-3711
  8. Christina A Welsh

    FM Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9802-725X
  9. Gregory G Tall

    Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  10. Beth Stevens

    FM Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    Beth Stevens, Reviewing editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4226-1201
  11. Kelly R Monk

    Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, United States
    For correspondence
    monkk@wustl.edu
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  12. Xianhua Piao

    Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    Xianhua.Piao@childrens.harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7540-6767

Funding

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS094164)

  • Xianhua Piao

National Multiple Sclerosis Society (RG-1501-02577)

  • Xianhua Piao

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS08520)

  • Xianhua Piao

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS079445)

  • Kelly R Monk

National Multiple Sclerosis Society (FG 2063-A1/2)

  • Stefanie Giera

National Multiple Sclerosis Society (Harry Weaver Neuroscience Fellowship)

  • Kelly R Monk

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: This study was performed in accordance to the guidelines of the Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocols (17-12-3578R and 17-03-3378R) at Boston Children's Hospital. Zebrafish experiments were performed in compliance with Washington University's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocol (20160174)

Reviewing Editor

  1. Klaus-Armin Nave, Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Germany

Publication history

  1. Received: November 6, 2017
  2. Accepted: May 18, 2018
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: May 29, 2018 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: May 31, 2018 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2018, Giera et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 3,224
    Page views
  • 643
    Downloads
  • 75
    Citations

Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Scopus, Crossref, PubMed Central.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Stefanie Giera
  2. Rong Luo
  3. Yanqin Ying
  4. Sarah D Ackerman
  5. Sung-Jin Jeong
  6. Hannah M Stoveken
  7. Christopher J Folts
  8. Christina A Welsh
  9. Gregory G Tall
  10. Beth Stevens
  11. Kelly R Monk
  12. Xianhua Piao
(2018)
Microglial transglutaminase-2 drives myelination and myelin repair via GPR56/ADGRG1 in oligodendrocyte precursor cells
eLife 7:e33385.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.33385

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience
    Flavia Venetucci Gouveia, Jurgen Germann ... Clement Hamani
    Research Article Updated

    Deep brain stimulation targeting the posterior hypothalamus (pHyp-DBS) is being investigated as a treatment for refractory aggressive behavior, but its mechanisms of action remain elusive. We conducted an integrated imaging analysis of a large multi-centre dataset, incorporating volume of activated tissue modeling, probabilistic mapping, normative connectomics, and atlas-derived transcriptomics. Ninety-one percent of the patients responded positively to treatment, with a more striking improvement recorded in the pediatric population. Probabilistic mapping revealed an optimized surgical target within the posterior-inferior-lateral region of the posterior hypothalamic area. Normative connectomic analyses identified fiber tracts and functionally connected with brain areas associated with sensorimotor function, emotional regulation, and monoamine production. Functional connectivity between the target, periaqueductal gray and key limbic areas – together with patient age – were highly predictive of treatment outcome. Transcriptomic analysis showed that genes involved in mechanisms of aggressive behavior, neuronal communication, plasticity and neuroinflammation might underlie this functional network.

    1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    2. Neuroscience
    Bradley M Colquitt, Kelly Li ... Michael S Brainard
    Research Article

    Sensory feedback is required for the stable execution of learned motor skills, and its loss can severely disrupt motor performance. The neural mechanisms that mediate sensorimotor stability have been extensively studied at systems and physiological levels, yet relatively little is known about how disruptions to sensory input alter the molecular properties of associated motor systems. Songbird courtship song, a model for skilled behavior, is a learned and highly structured vocalization that is destabilized following deafening. Here, we sought to determine how the loss of auditory feedback modifies gene expression and its coordination across the birdsong sensorimotor circuit. To facilitate this system-wide analysis of transcriptional responses, we developed a gene expression profiling approach that enables the construction of hundreds of spatially-defined RNA-sequencing libraries. Using this method, we found that deafening preferentially alters gene expression across birdsong neural circuitry relative to surrounding areas, particularly in premotor and striatal regions. Genes with altered expression are associated with synaptic transmission, neuronal spines, and neuromodulation and show a bias toward expression in glutamatergic neurons and Pvalb/Sst-class GABAergic interneurons. We also found that connected song regions exhibit correlations in gene expression that were reduced in deafened birds relative to hearing birds, suggesting that song destabilization alters the inter-region coordination of transcriptional states. Finally, lesioning LMAN, a forebrain afferent of RA required for deafening-induced song plasticity, had the largest effect on groups of genes that were also most affected by deafening. Combined, this integrated transcriptomics analysis demonstrates that the loss of peripheral sensory input drives a distributed gene expression response throughout associated sensorimotor neural circuitry and identifies specific candidate molecular and cellular mechanisms that support the stability and plasticity of learned motor skills.