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    Mitochondrial Dynamics in Physiology and Pathology of Myelinated Axons
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    Keywords:
    Axoplasmic transport
    Demyelinating Disorder
    Axonal Degeneration
    In several neurodegenerative diseases, axonal degeneration occurs before neuronal death and contributes significantly to patients’ disability. Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) is a genetically heterogeneous condition characterized by selective degeneration of axons of the corticospinal tracts and fasciculus gracilis. HSP may therefore be considered an exemplary disease to study the local programs mediating axonal degeneration. We have developed a mouse model for autosomal recessive HSP due to mutations in the SPG7 gene encoding the mitochondrial ATPase paraplegin. Paraplegin-deficient mice are affected by a distal axonopathy of spinal and peripheral axons, characterized by axonal swelling and degeneration. We found that mitochondrial morphological abnormalities occurred in synaptic terminals and in distal regions of axons long before the first signs of swelling and degeneration and correlated with onset of motor impairment during a rotarod test. Axonal swellings occur through massive accumulation of organelles and neurofilaments, suggesting impairment of anterograde axonal transport. Retrograde axonal transport is delayed in symptomatic mice. We speculate that local failure of mitochondrial function may affect axonal transport and cause axonal degeneration. Our data suggest that a timely therapeutic intervention may prevent the loss of axons.
    Axoplasmic transport
    Axonal Degeneration
    Degeneration (medical)
    Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia
    Neurofilament
    Citations (263)
    Distal axonal degeneration has been correlated with abnormalities of fast axonal transport in several toxic neuropathies. We have investigated axonal transport in experimental PNU (N-3-pyridylmethyl-N′-p-nitrophenylurea; Vacor) neuropathy, because of the rapid and synchronous degeneration of many terminal axons after a single dose of PNU. Almost all axon terminals at neuromuscular junctions in hindfoot muscles degenerated by 24 hours after the administration of PNU. Fewer affected axons were found in intramuscular nerve twigs, and fewer still in the posterior tibial nerves. No abnormal myelinated axons were found in the sciatic nerve in the thigh. Fast axonal transport in the sciatic nerve remained normal to the mid-thigh, but a reduced amount of labeled transported material reached the posterior tibial nerve at the ankle (27% reduction). Autoradiography showed that nearly no transported material reached the intramuscular nerves and neuromuscular junctions of the hindfeet. These results suggest that toxic impairment of fast anterograde axonal transport may contribute to the axonal degeneration produced by PNU.
    Axoplasmic transport
    Axonal Degeneration
    Tibial nerve
    Degeneration (medical)
    This chapter reviews the sequence of changes in Wallerian degeneration after transection, and suggests that the late stages are similar in the disorders of axonal transport. The axons develop swellings containing densely packed accumulations of mitochondria, dense bodies and multivesicular bodies. In settings where interrupted axons survive for long periods, such as the Wallerian-like degeneration slow (Wlds) mouse, there is also an accumulation of neurofilaments. Neurofilament proteins were initially recognized to move in the slow anterograde phase of axonal transport. The importance of defects in axonal transport have become especially clear in genetic disorders where molecules involved in axonal transport have been responsible for human length-dependent neuropathies. In multiple sclerosis (MS) and other human and experimental settings with inflammatory demyelination, axonal degeneration and loss can result from focal axonal interruption consequent to the presence of nearby inflammatory cells and inflammatory mediators.
    Wallerian degeneration
    Axoplasmic transport
    Neurofilament
    Degeneration (medical)
    Axonal Degeneration
    Axoplasm
    Glial cells produce myelin and contribute to axonal morphology in the nervous system. Two myelin membrane proteolipids, PLP and DM20, were shown to be essential for the integrity of myelinated axons. In the absence of PLP-DM20, mice assembled compact myelin sheaths but subsequently developed widespread axonal swellings and degeneration, associated predominantly with small-caliber nerve fibers. Similar swellings were absent in dysmyelinated shiverer mice, which lack myelin basic protein (MBP), but recurred in MBP*PLP double mutants. Thus, fiber degeneration, which was probably secondary to impaired axonal transport, could indicate that myelinated axons require local oligodendroglial support.
    Axonal Degeneration
    Proteolipid protein 1
    Degeneration (medical)
    Neuroregeneration
    Remyelination
    Wallerian degeneration
    Axoplasmic transport