A recoverable state of axon injury persists for hours after spinal cord contusion in vivo.

Therapeutic strategies for spinal cord injury (SCI) commonly focus on regenerating disconnected axons. An alternative approach would be to maintain continuity of damaged axons, especially after contusion. The viability of such neuropreservative strategies depends on the degree to which initially injured axons can recover.

Pervasive axonal transport deficits in multiple sclerosis models.

Impaired axonal transport can contribute to axon degeneration and has been described in many neurodegenerative diseases. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a common neuroinflammatory disease, which is characterized by progressive axon degeneration-whether, when, and how axonal transport is affected in this condition is unknown. Here we used in vivo two-photon imaging to directly assay transport of organelles and the stability of microtubule tracks in individual spinal axons in mouse models of MS.

Cellular, subcellular and functional in vivo labeling of the spinal cord using vital dyes.

Here we provide a protocol for rapidly labeling different cell types, distinct subcellular compartments and key injury mediators in the spinal cord of living mice. This method is based on the application of synthetic vital dyes to the surgically exposed spinal cord. Suitable vital dyes applied in appropriate concentrations lead to reliable in vivo labeling, which can be combined with genetic tags and in many cases preserved for postfixation analysis.

Pannexin 2 is expressed by postnatal hippocampal neural progenitors and modulates neuronal commitment.

The pannexins (Panx1, -2, and -3) are a mammalian family of putative single membrane channels discovered through homology to invertebrate gap junction-forming proteins, the innexins. Because connexin gap junction proteins are known regulators of neural stem and progenitor cell proliferation, migration, and specification, we asked whether pannexins, specifically Panx2, play a similar role in the postnatal hippocampus. We show that Panx2 protein is differentially expressed by multipotential progenitor cells and mature neurons.

ATP binding and hydrolysis by Mcm2 regulate DNA binding by Mcm complexes.

The essential minichromosome maintenance (Mcm) proteins Mcm2 through Mcm7 likely comprise the replicative helicase in eukaryotes. In addition to Mcm2-7, other subcomplexes, including one comprising Mcm4, Mcm6, and Mcm7, unwind DNA. Using Mcm4/6/7 as a tool, we reveal a role for nucleotide binding by Saccharomyces cerevisiae Mcm2 in modulating DNA binding by Mcm complexes.

The extracellular matrix controls gap junction protein expression and function in postnatal hippocampal neural progenitor cells.

Background: Gap junction protein and extracellular matrix signalling systems act in concert to influence developmental specification of neural stem and progenitor cells. It is not known how these two signalling systems interact. Here, we examined the role of ECM components in regulating connexin expression and function in postnatal hippocampal progenitor cells.