The high molecular weight neurofilament subunit plays an essential role in axonal outgrowth and stabilization (original) (raw)
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Requirement of Heavy Neurofilament Subunit in the Development of Axons with Large Calibers
Journal of Cell Biology, 1998
Neurofilaments (NFs) are prominent components of large myelinated axons. Previous studies have suggested that NF number as well as the phosphorylation state of the COOH-terminal tail of the heavy neurofilament (NF-H) subunit are major determinants of axonal caliber. We created NF-H knockout mice to assess the contribution of NF-H to the development of axon size as well as its effect on the amounts of low and mid-sized NF subunits (NF-L and NF-M respectively). Surprisingly, we found that NF-L levels were reduced only slightly whereas NF-M and tubulin proteins were unchanged in NF-H–null mice. However, the calibers of both large and small diameter myelinated axons were diminished in NF-H–null mice despite the fact that these mice showed only a slight decrease in NF density and that filaments in the mutant were most frequently spaced at the same interfilament distance found in control. Significantly, large diameter axons failed to develop in both the central and peripheral nervous syst...
Assembly and turnover of neurofilaments in growing axonal neurites
Biology open, 2017
Neurofilaments (NFs) are thought to provide stability to the axon. We examined NF dynamics within axonal neurites of NB2a/d1 neuroblastoma by transient transfection with green fluorescent protein-tagged NF-H (GFP-H) under the control of a tetracycline-inducible promoter. Immunofluorescent and biochemical analyses demonstrated that GFP-H expressed early during neurite outgrowth associated with a population of centrally-situated, highly-phosphorylated crosslinked NFs along the length of axonal neurites ("bundled NFs"). By contrast, GFP-H expressed after considerable neurite outgrowth displayed markedly reduced association with bundled NFs and was instead more evenly distributed throughout the axon. This differential localization was maintained for up to 2 weeks in culture. Once considerable neurite outgrowth had progressed, GFP that had previously associated with the NF bundle during early expression was irreversibly depleted by photobleaching. Cessation of expression allowe...
Journal of Neurochemistry, 2001
To clarify the role of the neurofilament (NF) medium (NF-M) and heavy (NF-H) subunits, we generated mice with targeted disruption of both NF-M and NF-H genes. The absence of the NF-M subunit resulted in a two-to threefold reduction in the caliber of large myelinated axons, whereas the lack of NF-H subunits had little effect on the radial growth of motor axons. In NF-MϪ/Ϫ mice, the velocity of axonal transport of NF light (NF-L) and NF-H proteins was increased by about twofold, whereas the steady-state levels of assembled NF-L were reduced. Although the NF-M or NF-H subunits are each dispensable for the formation of intermediate filaments, the absence of both subunits in double NF-M; NF-H knockout mice led to a scarcity of intermediate filament structures in axons and to a marked approximately twofold increase in the number of microtubules. Protein analysis indicated that the levels of NF-L and ␣-internexin proteins were reduced dramatically throughout the nervous system. Immunohistochemistry of spinal cord from the NF-MϪ/Ϫ;NF-HϪ/Ϫ mice revealed enhanced NF-L staining in the perikaryon of motor neurons but a weak NF-L staining in axons. In addition, axonal transport studies carried out by the injection of [ 35 S]methionine into spinal cord revealed after 30 days very low levels of newly synthesized NF-L proteins in the sciatic nerve of NF-MϪ/Ϫ;NF-HϪ/Ϫ mice. The combined results demonstrate a requirement of the high-molecularweight subunits for the assembly of type IV intermediate filament proteins and for the efficient translocation of NF-L proteins into the axonal compartment.
Loss of Neurofilaments Alters Axonal Growth Dynamics
The Journal of Neuroscience, 2001
The highly regulated expression of neurofilament (NF) proteins during axon outgrowth suggests that NFs are important for axon development, but their contribution to axon growth is unclear. Previous experiments in Xenopus laevis embryos demonstrated that antibody-induced disruption of NFs stunts axonal growth but left unresolved how the loss of NFs affects the dynamics of axon growth. In the current study, dissociated cultures were made from the spinal cords of embryos injected at the two-cell stage with an antibody to the middle molecular mass NF protein (NF-M), and time-lapse videomicroscopy was used to study early neurite outgrowth in descendants of both the injected and uninjected blastomeres. The injected antibody altered the growth dynamics primarily in long neurites (Ͼ85 m). These neurites were initiated just as early and terminated growth no sooner than did normal ones. Rather, they spent relatively smaller fractions of time actively extending than normal. When growth occurred, it did so at the same velocity. In very young neurites, which have NFs made exclusively of peripherin, NFs were unaffected, but in the shaft of older neurites, which have NFs that contain NF-M, NFs were disrupted. Thus growth was affected only after NFs were disrupted. In contrast, the distributions of ␣-tubulin and mitochondria were unaffected; thus organelles were still transported into neurites. However, mitochondrial staining was brighter in descendants of injected blastomeres, suggesting a greater demand for energy. Together, these results suggest a model in which intra-axonal NFs facilitate elongation of long axons by making it more efficient.
Neurofilaments Form a Highly Stable Stationary Cytoskeleton after Reaching a Critical Level in Axons
Journal of Neuroscience, 2009
The ultrastructural view of the axonal cytoskeleton as an extensively crosslinked network of neurofilaments (NFs) and other cytoskeletal polymers contrasts with the dynamic view suggested by axonal transport studies on cytoskeletal elements. Here we reconcile these perspectives by showing that neurons form a large NF network along axons which is unequivocally stationary, metabolically stable, and maintained by NFs and non-filamentous subunit assemblies undergoing slow transport by intermittent rapid movements and pauses. In mouse primary cortical neurons transfected with EGFP-NFL, formation of this stationary NF network requires a critical level of NFs, which explains its absence in NF-poor developing neurons studied previously. Most NFs at proximal axon regions were in a stationary structure coexisting with a smaller pool of moving EGFP-NFL assemblies that were mainly non-filamentous. Distally along the same axon, EGFP-labeled NFL was much less abundant and we detected only short filaments moving bidirectionally by slow transport (rapid movements and pauses) as previously described. In living mice, >25% of radiolabeled newly synthesized NFs remained in optic axons after slowly transport NFs had exited. Retained NF remained fixed over several months in a non-uniform distribution and exhibited exceptionally slow turnover (t 1/2 > 2.5 months), implying that, at steady state, >90% of NFs in mature optic axons comprise the stationary cytoskeleton and <10% are undergoing slow transport. These findings reconcile in vitro and in vivo axonal transport observations, showing that slowly transport NFs or subunit oligomers are precursors to a highly stable stationary cytoskeletal network that supports mature axons.