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First published online May 16, 2007
doi: 10.1242/10.1242/dev.02852

Development 134, 2083-2093 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
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A clonal analysis of neural progenitors during axolotl spinal cord regeneration reveals evidence for both spatially restricted and multipotent progenitors

Levan Mchedlishvili1,2, Hans H. Epperlein2, Anja Telzerow1 and Elly M. Tanaka1,*

1 Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, D-01307 Dresden, Germany.
2 Department of Anatomy, TU Dresden, Fetscherstrasse 74, D-01307 Dresden, Germany.

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: tanaka{at}mpi-cbg.de)

Accepted 15 March 2007

Complete regeneration of the spinal cord occurs after tail regeneration in urodele amphibians such as the axolotl. Little is known about how neural progenitor cells are recruited from the mature tail, how they populate the regenerating spinal cord, and whether the neural progenitor cells are multipotent. To address these issues we used three types of cell fate mapping. By grafting green fluorescent protein-positive (GFP+) spinal cord we show that a 500 µm region adjacent to the amputation plane generates the neural progenitors for regeneration. We further tracked single nuclear-GFP-labeled cells as they proliferated during regeneration, observing their spatial distribution, and ultimately their expression of the progenitor markers PAX7 and PAX6. Most progenitors generate descendents that expand along the anterior/posterior (A/P) axis, but remain close to the dorsal/ventral (D/V) location of the parent. A minority of clones spanned multiple D/V domains, taking up differing molecular identities, indicating that cells can execute multipotency in vivo. In parallel experiments, bulk labeling of dorsally or ventrally restricted progenitor cells revealed that ventral cells at the distal end of the regenerating spinal cord switch to dorsal cell fates. Analysis of PAX7 and PAX6 expression along the regenerating spinal cord indicated that these markers are expressed in dorsal and lateral domains all along the spinal cord except at the distal terminus. These results suggest that neural progenitor identity is destabilized or altered in the terminal vesicle region, from which clear migration of cells into the surrounding blastema is also observed.

Key words: Axolotl, Spinal cord, Regeneration, Neural progenitors, PAX6, PAX7, Single-cell labeling, Tissue grafting


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Regeneration: location matters

Development 2007 134: e1103. [Full Text]  





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