Skip to main content

Neurodegeneration Induced by De-Regulation of Neurofilament Gene Expression in Transgenic Mice

  • Chapter
Neural Cell Specification

Part of the book series: Altschul Symposia Series ((ALSS,volume 3))

  • 31 Accesses

Abstract

Neurofilaments (NFs) are formed by the copolymerization of three proteins, the light (NF-L), medium (NF-M) and heavy (NF-H) subunits (Hoffman and Lasek,1975; Liem et al., 1978). The three NF subunits are encoded by different genes and several reports have shown that the genes are under separate developmental control (Shaw and Weber, 1982; Carden et al., 1987; Cochard and Paulin, 1984; Julien et al., 1986). Direct evidence for a role of neurofilaments in the control of axonal calibers was recently provided from the recent analyses of a mutant quail (Ohara et al. 1993) and of a transgenic mouse (Eyer and Peterson 1994) with NF-deficient axons.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Beaudet L, Charron G, Houle D, Tretjakoff I, Peterson A and Julien J.-P. (1992): Intragenic regulatory elements contribute to transcriptional control of the neurofilament light gene. Gene 116: 205–214,.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carden MJ, Trojanowski JQ, Schlaepfer WW and Lee, VM-Y (1987): Two-stage expression of neurofilament polypeptides during rat neurogenesis with early establishment of adult phosphorylation patterns. J Neurosci 7: 3489–3504.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter S (1968): Proximal enlargement in motor neuron diseases. Neurol 18: 841–851.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chou SM (1992): Pathology - Light microscopy of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In Smith RA (ed): “Handbook of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,” Marcel Dekker Inc, New York, 133–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter S Karpati G Andermann F and Gold R (1974): Giant axonal neuropathy: a clinically and morphologically distinct neurological disease. Arch Neurol 31: 312.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cochard P and Paulin D (1984): Initial expression of neurofilament and vimentin in the central and peripheral nervous system of the mouse embryo in vivo, J Neurosci 4: 2080–2094.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Collard JF and Julien JP (1994): A simple test to monitor motor dysfunction in a transgenic mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. J Psychiatry and Neuroscience (in press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Côté F, Collard J-F and Julien J-P (1993): Progressive neuronopathy in transgenic mice expressing the human neurofilament heavy gene: A mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Cell 73: 35–47.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Côté F, Collard J-F, Houle D and Julien J-P (1994): Copy-dependent and correct developmental expression of the human neurofilament heavy gene in transgenic mice. Molec Brain Res 26: 99–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eyer J and Peterson A (1994): Neurofilament-deficient axons and perikaryal aggregates in viable transgenic mice expressing a neurofilament-beta-galactosidase fusion protein. Neuron 12: 389–416.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Figlewicz DA, Krizus A, Martinoli MG, Meininger V, Klein V, Rouleau GA and Julien J-P (1993): Variants of the heavy neurofilament gene subunit are associated with the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Hum Molec Genet 3: 1757–1761.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gajdusek DC (1985): Hypothesis: interference with axonal transport of neurofilament as a common pathogenetic mechanism of certain diseases of the CNS. N Engl J Med 312: 714–719.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Graham DG, Szakal-Quin G, Priest JW and Anthony DC (1984): In vitro evidence that covalent crosslinking of neurofilaments occurs in gamma-diketone neuropathy. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 81: 4979–4982.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Griffin JW, Hoffman PN, Clark AW, Carroll PT and Price DL (1978): Slow axonal transport of neurofilament proteins: Impairment by ß,ß’-iminodipropionitrile administration. Science 202: 633–635.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Griffin JW and Watson DF (1988): Axonal transport in neurological disease. Ann Neurol 23: 3–13.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hirano A, Donnenfeld H, Sasaki S and Nakano I (1984): Fine structural observations of neurofilamentous changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 43: 461–470.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hirano A and Kato S (1992): Fine structural study of sporadic and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In Smith RA (ed): “Handbook of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,” Marcel Dekker Inc, New York, 183–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman PN and Lasek RJ (1975): The slow component of axonal transport. Identification of the major structural polypeptides of the axon and their generality among mammalian neurons. J Cell Biol 66: 351–366.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ivanov TR and Brown IR (1992): Interaction of multiple nuclear proteins with the promoter region of the mouse 68-kDa neurofilament gene. J Neurosci 32: 149–158.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Julien J-P, Meijer D, Hurst J and Grosveld F (1986): Cloning and developmental expression of the murine neurofilament gene family. Mol Brain Res 1: 243–250.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Julien J-P, Tretjakoff I, Beaudet L and Peterson A (1987): Expression and assembly of a human neurofilament protein in transgenic mice provide a novel neuronal marking system. Genes Dev 1: 1085–1095.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Julien JP, Grosveld F, Yazdanbajksh K, Flavell D, Meijen D and Mushynski W (1987): Structure of the human neurofilament light gene (NF-L): a unique exon-intron organization in the intermediate filament gene family. Biochem Biophys Acta 909: 10–20.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Julien JP, Côté F, Beaudet L, Sidky M Flavell D, Grosveld F and Mushynski W (1988): Sequence and structure of the mouse gene coding for the largest neurofilament subunit. Gene 68: 307–314.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lees JF, Shneidman PS, Skuntz SF, Carden MJ and Lazzarini RA (1988): The structure and organization of the human heavy neurofilament subunit (NF-H) and the gene encoding it. EMBO J 7: 1947–1955.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Levy E, Liem RKU, D’Eustachio P and Cowan NJ (1982): Structure and evolutionary origin of the gene encoding mouse NF-M, the middle molecular mass neurofilament protein. Eur J Biochem 166: 71–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liem RKH, Yen S-H, Salomon GD and Shelanski ML (1978): Intermediate filaments in nervous tissues. J Cell Biol 79: 637–645.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lindenbaum MH, Carbonetto S, Grosveld F, Flavell D and Mushynski WE (1988): Transcriptional and post-transcriptional effects of nerve growth factor on expression of the three neurofilament subunits in PC-12 cells. J Biol Chem 263: 5662–5667.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Monteiro MJ, Hoffman PN, Gearhart JD and Cleveland DW (1990): Expression of NF-L in both neuronal and nonneuronal cells of transgenic mice: increased neurofilament density in axons without affecting caliber. J Cell Biol 111: 1543–1557.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Muma NA and Cork LC (1993): Alternations in neurofilament mRNA in hereditary canine spinal muscular atrophy. Lab Invest 69: 436–442.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nakahira K, Ikenaha K, Wada K, Tamura T, Furuichi T and Mikoshiba K (1990): Structure of the 68 kDa neurofilament gene and regulation of its expression. J Biol Chem 265: 19786–19791.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ohara O, Gahara Y, Miyake T, Teraoka H and Kitamura T (1993): Neurofilament deficiency in quail caused by nonsense mutation in neurofilament-L gene. J Cell Biol 121: 387–395.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen DR, Siddique T, Patterson D, Figlewicz DA, et al. (1993): Mutations in Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase gene are associated with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Nature 362: 59–62.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sasaki S, Murayana S, Yamane K, Sakuma H and Takeishi M (1989): Swelling of proximal axons in a case of motor neuron disease. Ann Neurol 25: 520–522.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt ML, Carden MJ, Lee VM-Y and Trojanowski JQ (1987): Phosphate dependent and independent neurofilament epitopes in the axonal swellings of patients with motor neuron disease and controls. Lab Invest 56: 282–294.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schneidman PS, Bruce J, Schwartz ML and Schlaepfer WW (1992): Negative regulatory regions are present upstream in the three mouse neurofilament genes. Molec Brain Res 13: 127–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw G and Weber K (1982): Differential expression of neurofilament triplet proteins in brain development. Nature 298: 277–279.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Troncoso JC, Gilbert MR and Muma NA (1992): Neurotoxicology: light metals, In Smith RA (ed): “Handbook of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,” Marcel Dekker Inc, New York, 543–558.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsuneishi S, Sano K and Nakamura H (1993): Serum depletion increases the neurofilament protein mRNA levels in a neuroblastoma cell line, GOTO. Molec Brain Res 17: 119–128.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xu Z, Cork LC, Griffin JW and Cleveland DW (1993): Increased expression of neurofilament subunit NF-L produces morphological alterations that resemble the pathology of human motor neuron disease. Cell 73: 23–33.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yazdanbakhsh K, Fraser P, Kioussis D, Vidal M, Grosveld F and Lindenbaum M (1993): Functional analysis of the human neurofilament light chain gene promoter. Nucl Acids Res 21: 455–461.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Julien, JP., Côté, F., Charron, G., Collard, JF. (1995). Neurodegeneration Induced by De-Regulation of Neurofilament Gene Expression in Transgenic Mice. In: Juurlink, B.H.J., Krone, P.H., Kulyk, W.M., Verge, V.M.K., Doucette, J.R. (eds) Neural Cell Specification. Altschul Symposia Series, vol 3. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1929-4_17

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1929-4_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5790-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-1929-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics