Please note: this event has passed
Speaker: Professor Alison Lloyd, Director of the MRC LMCB and Co-Director UCL Cancer Domain, UCL
Host: Jody Rosenblatt
Peripheral nerves are highly quiescent, architecturally stable structures yet have great regenerative potential following an injury. This involves a complex, co-ordinated multicellular response to guide and support the regrowth of axons back to their targets. In previous work, we have demonstrated that Schwann cells orchestrate this process by co-ordinating the behaviour of the other cell types involved in nerve regeneration.
The image shows that the major glial cell type of the PNS, Schwann cells (labelled with a Schwann cell-specific Cre/Confetti), switch from a highly specialised, quiescent cell to a proliferating, migrating progenitor cell population, responsible for guiding regrowing axons back to their targets.
In this talk, I will describe how a nerve switches between its homeostatic and regenerative states and focus on how heterotypic and homotypic cell:cell interactions are required to regenerate new tissue in the absence of guidance signals present during development. This work has implications for our understanding of homeostatic, regenerative and repair processes in adults and has clinical implications for regenerative medicine and cancer biology.
1. Parrinello, S., Napoli, I., Ribeiro, S., Wingfield Digby, P., Fedorova, M., Parkinson, D.B., Doddrell, R.D., Nakayama, M., Adams, R.H., and Lloyd, A.C. (2010). EphB signaling directs peripheral nerve regeneration through Sox2-dependent Schwann cell sorting. Cell143, 145-155.
2. Napoli, I., Noon, L.A., Ribeiro, S., Kerai, A.P., Parrinello, S., Rosenberg, L.H., Collins, M.J., Harrisingh, M.C., White, I.J., Woodhoo, A., and Lloyd, A.C. (2012). A central role for the ERK-signaling pathway in controlling Schwann cell plasticity and peripheral nerve regeneration in vivo. Neuron73, 729-742.
3. Cattin, A.L., Burden, J.J., Van Emmenis, L., Mackenzie, F.E., Hoving, J.J., Garcia Calavia, N., Guo, Y., McLaughlin, M., Rosenberg, L.H., Quereda, V., Jamecna, D., Napoli, I., Parrinello, S., Enver, T., Ruhrberg, C., and Lloyd, A.C. (2015). Macrophage-Induced Blood Vessels Guide Schwann Cell-Mediated Regeneration of Peripheral Nerves. Cell162, 1127-1139.
4. Stierli, S., Napoli, I., White, I.J., Cattin, A.L., Monteza Cabrejos, A., Garcia Calavia, N., Malong, L., Ribeiro, S., Nihouarn, J., Williams, R., Young, K.M., Richardson, W.D., and Lloyd, A.C. (2018). The regulation of the homeostasis and regeneration of peripheral nerve is distinct from the CNS and independent of a stem cell population. Development 145.