New neurons for injured brains? The emergence of new genetic model organisms to study brain regeneration

Overexpressed ski efficiently promotes neurorestoration, increases neuronal regeneration, and reduces astrogliosis after traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors suffer from long-term disability and neuropsychiatric sequelae due to irreparable brain tissue destruction. However, there are still few efficient therapies to promote neurorestoration in damaged brain tissue. This study aimed to investigate whether the pro-oncogenic gene ski can promote neurorestoration after TBI. We established a ski-overexpressing experimental TBI mouse model using adenovirus-mediated overexpression through immediate injection after injury. Hematoxylin-eosin staining, MRI-based 3D lesion volume reconstruction, neurobehavioral tests, and analyses of neuronal regeneration and astrogliosis were used to assess neurorestorative efficiency. The effects of ski overexpression on the proliferation of cultured immature neurons and astrocytes were evaluated using imaging flow cytometry. The Ski protein level increased in the perilesional region at 3 days post injury. ski overexpression further elevated Ski protein levels up to 14 days post injury. Lesion volume was attenuated by approximately 36-55% after ski overexpression, with better neurobehavioral recovery, more newborn immature and mature neurons, and less astrogliosis in the perilesional region. Imaging flow cytometry results showed that ski overexpression elevated the proliferation rate of immature neurons and reduced the proliferation rate of astrocytes. These results show that ski can be considered a novel neurorestoration-related gene that effectively promotes neurorestoration, facilitates neuronal regeneration, and reduces astrogliosis after TBI.

Zebrafish as a translational regeneration model to study the activation of neural stem cells and role of their environment

The review is an overview of the current knowledge of neuronal regeneration properties in mammals and fish. The ability to regenerate the damaged parts of the nervous tissue has been demonstrated in all vertebrates. Notably, fish and amphibians have the highest capacity for neurogenesis, whereas reptiles and birds are able to only regenerate specific regions of the brain, while mammals have reduced capacity for neurogenesis. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a promising model of study because lesions in the brain or complete cross-section of the spinal cord are followed by an effective neuro-regeneration that successfully restores the motor function. In the brain and the spinal cord of zebrafish, stem cell activity is always able to re-activate the molecular programs required for central nervous system regeneration. In mammals, traumatic brain injuries are followed by reduced neurogenesis and poor axonal regeneration, often insufficient to functionally restore the nervous tissue, while spinal injuries are not repaired at all. The environment that surrounds the stem cell niche constituted by connective tissue and stimulating factors, including pro-inflammation molecules, seems to be a determinant in triggering stem cell proliferation and/or the trans-differentiation of connective elements (mainly fibroblasts). Investigating and comparing the neuronal regeneration in zebrafish and mammals may lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms behind neurogenesis, and the failure of the regenerative response in mammals, first of all, the role of inflammation, considered the main inhibitor of the neuronal regeneration.

Why Does Brain Trauma Research Fail?

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) represents a major health care problem and a significant social and economic issue worldwide. Considering the generalized failure in introducing effective drugs and clinical protocols, there is an urgent need for efficient treatment modalities, able to improve devastating posttraumatic morbidity and mortality. In this work, the status of brain trauma research is analyzed in all its aspects, including basic and translational science and clinical trials. Implicit and explicit challenges to different lines of research are discussed and clinical trial structures and outcomes are scrutinized, along with possible explanations for systematic therapeutic failures and their implications for future development of drug and clinical trials. Despite significant advances in basic and clinical research in recent years, no specific therapeutic protocols for TBI have been shown to be effective. New potential therapeutic targets have been identified, following a better understanding of pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying TBI, although with disappointing results. Several reasons can be pinpointed at different levels, from inaccurate animal models of disease to faulty preclinical and clinical trials, with poor design and subjective outcome measures. Distinct strategies can be delineated to overcome specific shortcomings of research studies. Identifying and contextualizing the failures that have dominated TBI research is mandatory. This review analyzes current approaches and discusses possible strategies for improving outcomes.

A historical, systematic review of handedness origins

Handedness ontogenesis is still under debate in science. This systematic review analyzed articles regarding the theories and basis of handedness formation, highlighting the historical knowledge path that this literature underwent. Cochrane Library, LILACS, Web of Sciences, Science Direct and PubMed databases were searched. This review included review studies with handedness as the main topic. Only papers written in English with analyses exclusively in neurotypical humans (any age range) were included. Different approaches (genetic, neural, social, and behavioural) were reviewed in light of growing evidence, summarizing the current state of the art. Genetic and environmental/social impacts are common points in most of the reviews, each given more or less importance, depending on the author and theory proposed. Multifactorial, developmental approaches to handedness formation seem to be the most up to date view of the phenomenon. Different control mechanisms between hemisphere and neural asymmetries are also contributing factors to handedness formation.

Adult newborn neurons interfere with fear discrimination in a protocol-dependent manner

INTRODUCTION

Significant enhancement of neurogenesis is known to occur in response to a variety of brain insults such as traumatic brain injury. Previous studies have demonstrated that injury-induced newborn neurons are required for hippocampus-dependent spatial learning and memory tasks like the Morris water maze, but not in contextual fear conditioning that requires both the hippocampus and amygdala. Recently, the dentate gyrus, where adult hippocampal neurogenesis occurs, has been implicated in processing information to form specific memory under specific environmental stimuli in a process known as pattern separation.

METHODS

To test whether injury-induced newborn neurons facilitate pattern separation, hippocampus-dependent contextual fear discrimination was performed using delta-HSV-TK transgenic mice, which can temporally inhibit injury-induced neurogenesis under the control of ganciclovir.

RESULTS

We observed that impaired neurogenesis enhanced the ability to distinguish aversive from naïve environments. In addition, this occurs most significantly following injury, but only in a context-dependent manner whereby the sequence of introducing the naïve environment from the aversive one affected the performance differentially.

CONCLUSIONS

Temporal impairment of both baseline and injury-induced adult neurogenesis enhances performance in fear discrimination in a context-dependent manner.

A Cold-Blooded View on Adult Neurogenesis

During brain development, highly complex and interconnected neural circuits are established. This intricate wiring needs to be robust to faithfully perform adult brain function throughout life, but at the same time offer room for plasticity to integrate new information. In the mammalian brain, adult-born neurons are produced in restricted niches harboring neural stem cells. In the fruit fly Drosophila, low-level adult neurogenesis arising from a dispersed population of neural progenitors has recently been detected in the optic lobes. Strikingly, these normally quiescent neural stem cells proliferate upon brain injury and produce new neurons for brain regeneration. Here, we review adult neurogenesis in crustaceans and insects and highlight that neurogenesis in the visual system is prominent in arthropods, but its role and underlying mechanisms are unclear. Moreover, we discuss how the study of damage-responsive progenitor cells in Drosophila may help to understand robust regenerative neurogenesis and open new avenues to enhance brain repair after injury or stroke in humans.

Functional brain regeneration in the acoel worm Symsagittifera roscoffensis

The ability of some animals to regrow their head and brain after decapitation provides a striking example of the regenerative capacity within the animal kingdom. The acoel worm Symsagittifera roscoffensis can regrow its head, brain and sensory head organs within only a few weeks after decapitation. How rapidly and to what degree it also reacquires its functionality to control behavior however remains unknown. We provide here a neuroanatomical map of the brain neuropils of the adult S. roscoffensis and show that after decapitation a normal neuroanatomical organization of the brain is restored in the majority of animals. By testing different behaviors we further show that functionality of both sensory perception and the underlying brain architecture are restored within weeks after decapitation. Interestingly not all behaviors are restored at the same speed and to the same extent. While we find that phototaxis recovered rapidly, geotaxis is not restored within 7 weeks. Our findings show that regeneration of the head, sensory organs and brain result in the restoration of directed navigation behavior, suggesting a tight coordination in the regeneration of certain sensory organs with that of their underlying neural circuits. Thus, at least in S. roscoffensis, the regenerative capacity of different sensory modalities follows distinct paths.

Summary: Brain and head regeneration in the acoel Symsagittifera roscoffensis is coordinated with restoration of directed navigation behavior, suggesting that the regenerative capacity of different sensory modalities follows distinct paths.