Publications by authors named "Jose Manuel Garcia-Verdugo"

Article Synopsis
  • - Germinal matrix hemorrhage (GMH) is a serious condition in preterm infants linked to blood vessel rupture in the brain, but the reasons behind this vulnerability are not well understood.
  • - Research shows that microglia (immune cells in the brain) interact with developing blood vessels differently as the brain matures and their absence can hinder blood vessel growth in key brain areas.
  • - In preterm infants with GMH, immune cells show abnormal activation, leading to inflammation and factors that compromise blood vessel integrity, suggesting that the immune response plays a crucial role in the development of GMH.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Preterm infants often need oxygen right after birth, but too much oxygen can harm their developing lungs due to harmful free radicals.
  • Research using a mouse model tested how different oxygen levels during pregnancy affect lung health after exposure to high levels of oxygen at birth.
  • The study found that exposing mice to low oxygen before birth protected their lungs from damage during high oxygen exposure after birth, indicating hypoxic preconditioning could improve postnatal lung development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • ALS is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects both motor neurons and skeletal muscle, with muscle metabolic disruptions appearing before the onset of classic symptoms.
  • Research found that ALS muscle cells show impaired myogenesis and glucose oxidation, linked to the FOXO1 transcription factor, suggesting this factor plays a critical role in the disease's muscle-related issues.
  • Targeting FOXO1 may offer a new therapeutic strategy for ALS by improving muscle function and potentially alleviating some symptoms associated with the disorder.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Mutations in the () gene cause a serious metabolic condition leading to symptoms like seizures, psychomotor delays, and severe lactic acidosis due to lipoylation defects in key enzyme complexes.
  • Research using patient-derived fibroblasts and neurons revealed reduced levels of essential proteins and enzyme activities, resulting in cellular energy failure and damage.
  • A combination of antioxidants and mitochondrial boosters was found to improve cell function and protein lipoylation, suggesting a potential treatment strategy for this genetic disorder, primarily through SIRT3 activation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Neurogenesis and gliogenesis continue in the Ventricular-Subventricular Zone (V-SVZ) of the adult rodent brain. B1 cells are astroglial cells derived from radial glia that function as primary progenitors or neural stem cells (NSCs) in the V-SVZ. B1 cells, which have a small apical contact with the ventricle, decline in numbers during early postnatal life, yet neurogenesis continues into adulthood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the injured brain, new neurons produced from endogenous neural stem cells form chains and migrate to injured areas and contribute to the regeneration of lost neurons. However, this endogenous regenerative capacity of the brain has not yet been leveraged for the treatment of brain injury. Here, we show that in healthy brain chains of migrating new neurons maintain unexpectedly large non-adherent areas between neighboring cells, allowing for efficient migration.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Axonal growth cones mediate axonal guidance and growth regulation. We show that migrating neurons in mice possess a growth cone at the tip of their leading process, similar to that of axons, in terms of the cytoskeletal dynamics and functional responsivity through protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type sigma (PTPσ). Migrating-neuron growth cones respond to chondroitin sulfate (CS) through PTPσ and collapse, which leads to inhibition of neuronal migration.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Oligodendrocyte precursor markers have become of great interest to identify new diagnostic and therapeutic targets for diffuse gliomas, since state-of-the-art studies point towards immature oligodendrocytes as a possible source of gliomagenesis. Brain enriched myelin associated protein 1 (BCAS1) is a novel marker of immature oligodendrocytes and was proposed to contribute to tumorigenesis in non-central nervous system tumors. However, BCAS1 role in diffuse glioma is still underexplored.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The temporal lobe of the human brain contains the entorhinal cortex (EC). This region of the brain is a highly interconnected integrative hub for sensory and spatial information; it also has a key role in episodic memory formation and is the main source of cortical hippocampal inputs. The human EC continues to develop during childhood, but neurogenesis and neuronal migration to the EC are widely considered to be complete by birth.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The monocarboxylate transporter 8 (MCT8) plays a vital role in maintaining brain thyroid hormone homeostasis. This transmembrane transporter is expressed at the brain barriers, as the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and in neural cells, being the sole known thyroid hormone-specific transporter to date. Inactivating mutations in the MCT8 gene (SLC16A2) cause the Allan-Herndon-Dudley Syndrome (AHDS) or MCT8 deficiency, a rare X-linked disease characterized by delayed neurodevelopment and severe psychomotor disorders.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Remyelination after white matter injury (WMI) often fails in diseases such as multiple sclerosis because of improper recruitment and repopulation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) in lesions. How OPCs elicit specific intracellular programs in response to a chemically and mechanically diverse environment to properly regenerate myelin remains unclear. OPCs construct primary cilia, specialized signaling compartments that transduce Hedgehog (Hh) and G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) is a group of rare neurogenetic disorders frequently associated with iron accumulation in the basal nuclei of the brain. Among NBIA subtypes, β-propeller protein-associated neurodegeneration (BPAN) is associated with mutations in the autophagy gene . The aim of this study was to demonstrate the autophagic defects and secondary pathological consequences in cellular models derived from two patients harboring mutations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Adult neurogenesis persists in mammals in the neurogenic zones, where newborn neurons are incorporated into preexisting circuits to preserve and improve learning and memory tasks. Relevant structural elements of the neurogenic niches include the family of cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), which participate in signal transduction and regulate the survival, division, and differentiation of radial glial progenitors (RGPs). Here we analyzed the functions of neural cell adhesion molecule 2 (NCAM2) in the regulation of RGPs in adult neurogenesis and during corticogenesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma present a high mortality rate. Melatonin has been shown to have oncostatic effects in different types of cancers. However, inconsistent results have been reported for in vivo applications.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The molecular mechanisms and evolutionary changes accompanying synapse development are still poorly understood. Here we generate a cross-species proteomic map of synapse development in the human, macaque and mouse neocortex. By tracking the changes of more than 1,000 postsynaptic density (PSD) proteins from midgestation to young adulthood, we find that PSD maturation in humans separates into three major phases that are dominated by distinct pathways.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxia 36 (SCA36) is caused by hexanucleotide repeat expansion in the gene.

Objectives: To assess frequency, clinical and genetic features of SCA36 in Eastern Spain.

Methods: expansion was tested in a cohort of undiagnosed cerebellar ataxia families (n = 84).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In adult lizards, new neurons are generated from neural stem cells in the ventricular zone of the lateral ventricles. These new neurons migrate and integrate into the main telencephalic subdivisions. In this work we have studied adult neurogenesis in the lizard (formerly ) by administering [H]-thymidine and bromodeoxyuridine as proliferation markers and euthanizing the animals at different survival times to determine the identity of progenitor cells and to study their lineage derivatives.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Centrosomes are orbited by centriolar satellites, dynamic multiprotein assemblies nucleated by Pericentriolar material 1 (PCM1). To study the requirement for centriolar satellites, we generated mice lacking PCM1, a crucial component of satellites. mice display partially penetrant perinatal lethality with survivors exhibiting hydrocephalus, oligospermia, and cerebellar hypoplasia, and variably expressive phenotypes such as hydronephrosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * A new approach utilizes an amphiphilic peptide (Ncad-mRADA) combined with hydrogels to promote the migration of neuroblasts (young neurons) to damaged areas of the brain.
  • * Testing showed that Ncad-mRADA not only aided neuroblast movement toward injured sites but also significantly enhanced neuronal regeneration and recovery in neonatal brain injury, showcasing its potential as a regenerative therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

annual fishes exhibit cell proliferation and neurogenesis throughout life. They withstand extreme environmental changes as their habitat dries out, pressuring nervous system to adapt. Their visual system is challenged to adjust as the water becomes turbid.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Interactions between angiogenesis and neurogenesis regulate embryonic brain development. However, a comprehensive understanding of the stages of vascular cell maturation is lacking, especially in the prenatal human brain. Using fluorescence-activated cell sorting, single-cell transcriptomics, and histological and ultrastructural analyses, we show that an ensemble of endothelial and mural cell subtypes tile the brain vasculature during the second trimester.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are emerging as powerful players in cell-to-cell communication both in healthy and diseased brain. In Parkinson's disease (PD)-characterized by selective dopaminergic neuron death in ventral midbrain (VMB) and degeneration of their terminals in striatum (STR)-astrocytes exert dual harmful/protective functions, with mechanisms not fully elucidated. Here, this study shows that astrocytes from the VMB-, STR-, and VMB/STR-depleted brains release a population of small EVs  in a region-specific manner.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Autophagy is a highly conserved process that mediates the targeting and degradation of intracellular components to lysosomes, contributing to the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and to obtaining energy, which ensures viability under stress conditions. Therefore, autophagy defects are common to different neurodegenerative disorders. Rnd3 belongs to the family of Rho GTPases, involved in the regulation of actin cytoskeleton dynamics and important in the modulation of cellular processes such as migration and proliferation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive and common type of primary brain tumor in adults. Tumor location plays a role in patient prognosis, with tumors proximal to the lateral ventricles (LVs) presenting with worse overall survival, increased expression of stem cell genes, and increased incidence of distal tumor recurrence. This may be due in part to interaction of GBM with factors of the subventricular zone (SVZ), including those contained within the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Terreros-Roncal . investigated the impacts of human neurodegeneration on immunostainings assumed to be associated with neurogenesis. However, the study provides no evidence that putative proliferating cells are linked to neurogenesis, that multipolar nestin astrocytes are progenitors, or that mature-looking doublecortin neurons are adult-born.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF