Endothelin signalling mediates experience-dependent myelination in the CNS
- University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Skoltech Institute for Science and Technology, Russian Federation
Abstract
Experience and changes in neuronal activity can alter CNS myelination, but the signalling pathways responsible remain poorly understood. Here we define a pathway in which endothelin, signalling through the G protein-coupled receptor endothelin receptor B and PKC epsilon, regulates the number of myelin sheaths formed by individual oligodendrocytes in mouse and zebrafish. We show that this phenotype is also observed in the prefrontal cortex of mice following social isolation, and is associated with reduced expression of vascular endothelin. Additionally, we show that increasing endothelin signalling rescues this myelination defect caused by social isolation. Together, these results indicate that the vasculature responds to changes in neuronal activity associated with experience by regulating endothelin levels, which in turn affect the myelinating capacity of oligodendrocytes. This pathway may be employed to couple the metabolic support function of myelin to activity-dependent demand and also represents a novel mechanism for adaptive myelination.
Data availability
Data generated from phosphorylation screen is included in supporting files - supplementary file 1
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Wellcome
- Charles ffrench-Constant
Multiple Sclerosis Society (950)
- Charles ffrench-Constant
Wellcome (102836/Z/13/Z)
- David A Lyons
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: Animal husbandry and experiments were performed under UK Home Office project licenses issued under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, under project licences 60/8436, 70/8436 and 70/8748. All animal experiments were reviewed, revised and approved by the University of Edinburgh Bioresearch & Veterinary Services team.
Copyright
© 2019, Swire 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.
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Endothelin signalling mediates experience-dependent myelination in the CNS
eLife 8:e49493.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.49493
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