A Conditioning Lesion Provides Selective Protection in a Rat Model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (original) (raw)
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The Journal of Physiology, 2009
Several studies using transgenic mouse models of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have reported a life span increase in exercised animals, as long as animals are submitted to a moderate-intensity training protocol. However, the neuroprotective potential of exercise is still questionable. To gain further insight into the cellular basis of the exercise-induced effects in neuroprotection, we compared the efficiency of a swimming-based training, a high-frequency and -amplitude exercise that preferentially recruits the fast motor units, and of a moderate running-based training, that preferentially triggers the slow motor units, in an ALS mouse model. Surprisingly, we found that the swimming-induced benefits sustained the motor function and increased the ALS mouse life span by about 25 days. The magnitude of this beneficial effect is one of the highest among those induced by any therapeutic strategy in this disease. We have shown that, unlike running, swimming significantly delays spinal motoneuron death and, more specifically, the motoneurons of large soma area. Analysis of the muscular phenotype revealed a swimming-induced relative maintenance of the fast phenotype in fast-twitch muscles. Furthermore, the swimming programme preserved astrocyte and oligodendrocyte populations in ALS spinal cord. As a whole, these data are highly suggestive of a causal relationship not only linking motoneuron activation and protection, but also motoneuron protection and the maintenance of the motoneuron surrounding environment. Basically, exercise-induced neuroprotective mechanisms provide an example of the molecular adaptation of activated motoneurons.
Update on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, 2016
It is well defined that subpopulations of motoneurons have different vulnerability to the pathology causing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In the spinal cord, the fast fatigable motoneurons have been shown to be the first to degenerate, followed by fatigue-resistant and slow motoneurons. In contrast motoneurons located in the Onuf's and oculomotor nuclei appear to be resistant to disease. With a focus on research mainly done on mice overexpressing the mutated human superoxide dismutase (SOD1) protein, we review recent studies exploring the mechanisms that underlie the selective vulnerability of the various motoneuron subtypes. By comparing differences in gene expression between these populations, it has been possible to identify factors, which critically determine the survival of motoneurons and the neuromuscular function in the pathologic context of ALS. Furthermore, we discuss the contribution of non-cell autonomous processes, involving glial cells and the skeletal muscle, in the neurodegenerative process. Exploring the cause of neurodegeneration from the angle of the selective neuronal vulnerability has recently led to the identification of novel targets, which open opportunities for therapeutic intervention against ALS.
Brain Pathology, 2011
Excitotoxicity is a widely studied mechanism underlying motoneuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Synaptic alterations that produce an imbalance in the ratio of inhibitory/excitatory synapses are expected to promote or protect against motoneuron excitotoxicity. In ALS patients, motoneurons suffer a reduction in their synaptic coverage, as in the transition from the presymptomatic (2-month-old) to early-symptomatic (3-month-old) stage of the hSOD1 G93A mouse model of familial ALS. Net synapse loss resulted from inhibitory bouton loss and excitatory synapse gain. Furthermore, in 3-monthold transgenic mice, remaining inhibitory but not excitatory boutons attached to motoneurons showed reduction in the active zone length and in the spatial density of synaptic vesicles in the releasable pool near the active zone. Bouton degeneration/loss seems to be mediated by bouton vacuolization and by mechanical displacement due to swelling vacuolated dendrites. In addition, chronic treatment with a nitric oxide (NO) synthase inhibitor avoided inhibitory loss but not excitatory gain. These results indicate that NO mediates inhibitory loss occurring from the pre-to early-symptomatic stage of hSOD1 G93A mice. This work contributes new insights on ALS pathogenesis, recognizing synaptic re-arrangement onto motoneurons as a mechanism favoring disease progression rather than as a protective homeostatic response against excitotoxic events. and in early-symptomatic hSOD1 G93A mice (68). Clarifying the nature of lost boutons will contribute information on its compensatory homeostatic properties, protecting motoneurons from excitotoxic death or, on the contrary, on the synaptic mechanisms contributing to disease progression.
Experimental Neurology, 1998
Mutations in the superoxide dismutase gene 1 (SOD-1) are found in patients with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FALS). Overexpression of a mutated human SOD-1 gene in mice results in neurodegenerative disease as result of motoneuron loss in lumbar spinal cord (10). Using this mouse model of FALS, we have established a quantitative assay utilizing the retrograde tracer Fluorogold (FG) to determine the number of motoneurons innervating one skeletal muscle in mice with ongoing disease. In adult wildtype mice, the number of ␣ motoneurons retrogradely labeled by an injection of FG into medial gastrocnemius muscle is 50 Ϯ 7 and this number remains constant from 7 to 18 weeks of age. In mutant mice, the number of ␣ motoneurons retrogradely labeled by FG is the same as in wild-type mice at 7 and 9 weeks, but then declines to 36% of that in normal mice at 18 weeks. This decline also correlates positively to severity of motor impairments in these mice as assessed by the hindlimb splay test. In contrast, the number of FGlabeled ␥ motoneurons remains relatively unchanged in both wild-type and mutant mice up to 18 weeks. At 18 weeks of age, this apparent ␣ motoneuron denervation is paralleled by an average of 55% reduction of MG-muscle mass and 40% weaker performance in the hindlimb splay test. These data suggest that ␣ motoneurons are the most vulnerable neuronal subtype in this mouse model of ALS and it is primarily their loss that leads to functional motor deficits. This quantitative bioassay also will be valuable for evaluating novel therapeutics for ALS. 1998 Academic Press
Brain Pathology, 2010
Excitotoxicity is a widely studied mechanism underlying motoneuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Synaptic alterations that produce an imbalance in the ratio of inhibitory/excitatory synapses are expected to promote or protect against motoneuron excitotoxicity. In ALS patients, motoneurons suffer a reduction in their synaptic coverage, as in the transition from the presymptomatic (2-month-old) to early-symptomatic (3-month-old) stage of the hSOD1 G93A mouse model of familial ALS. Net synapse loss resulted from inhibitory bouton loss and excitatory synapse gain. Furthermore, in 3-monthold transgenic mice, remaining inhibitory but not excitatory boutons attached to motoneurons showed reduction in the active zone length and in the spatial density of synaptic vesicles in the releasable pool near the active zone. Bouton degeneration/loss seems to be mediated by bouton vacuolization and by mechanical displacement due to swelling vacuolated dendrites. In addition, chronic treatment with a nitric oxide (NO) synthase inhibitor avoided inhibitory loss but not excitatory gain. These results indicate that NO mediates inhibitory loss occurring from the pre-to early-symptomatic stage of hSOD1 G93A mice. This work contributes new insights on ALS pathogenesis, recognizing synaptic rearrangement onto motoneurons as a mechanism favoring disease progression rather than as a protective homeostatic response against excitotoxic events.
Experimental models for the study of neurodegeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Molecular Neurodegeneration, 2009
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of unknown cause, characterized by the selective and progressive death of both upper and lower motoneurons, leading to a progressive paralysis. Experimental animal models of the disease may provide knowledge of the pathophysiological mechanisms and allow the design and testing of therapeutic strategies, provided that they mimic as close as possible the symptoms and temporal progression of the human disease. The principal hypotheses proposed to explain the mechanisms of motoneuron degeneration have been studied mostly in models in vitro, such as primary cultures of fetal motoneurons, organotypic cultures of spinal cord sections from postnatal rodents and the motoneuron-like hybridoma cell line NSC-34. However, these models are flawed in the sense that they do not allow a direct correlation between motoneuron death and its physical consequences like paralysis. In vivo, the most widely used model is the transgenic...
Autologous treatment for ALS with implication for broad neuroprotection
Translational Neurodegeneration, 2022
Background Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by a progressive loss of motor neurons (MNs), leading to paralysis, respiratory failure and death within 2–5 years of diagnosis. The exact mechanisms of sporadic ALS, which comprises 90% of all cases, remain unknown. In familial ALS, mutations in superoxide dismutase (SOD1) cause 10% of cases. Methods ALS patient-derived human-induced pluripotent stem cells (ALS hiPSCs, harboring the SOD1AV4 mutation), were differentiated to MNs (ALS-MNs). The neuroprotective effects of conditioned medium (CM) of hESCs (H9), wt hiPSCs (WTC-11) and the ALS iPSCs, on MN apoptosis and viability, formation and maintenance of neurites, mitochondrial activity and expression of inflammatory genes, were examined. For in vivo studies, 200 μl of CM from the ALS iPSCs (CS07 and CS053) was injected subcutaneously into the ALS model mice (transgenic for the human SOD1G93A mutation). Animal agility and strength, muscle innervation and mass, neurologi...