TY - JOUR
T1 - Laminar and areal expression of Unc5d and its role in cortical cell survival
AU - Takemoto, Makoto
AU - Hattori, Yuki
AU - Zhao, Hong
AU - Sato, Haruka
AU - Tamada, Atsushi
AU - Sasaki, Shinji
AU - Nakajima, Kazunori
AU - Yamamoto, Nobuhiko
N1 - Funding Information:
Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Projects 18300105, 18021021, 20021018, 221110004 and 22240041 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
PY - 2011/8
Y1 - 2011/8
N2 - The UNC-5 family of netrin receptors is known to regulate axon guidance, cell migration, and cell survival. We have previously demonstrated that unc5d, one of the UNC-5 family member genes, is specifically expressed in layer 4 of the developing rat neocortex (Zhong Y, Takemoto M, Fukuda T, Hattori Y, Murakami F, Nakajima D, Nakayama M, Yamamoto N. 2004. Identification of the genes that are expressed in the upper layers of the neocortex. Cereb Cortex. 14:1144-1152). However, the role of UNC5D in cortical development is still unknown. In this study, we revealed that unc5d was highly expressed in the primary sensory areas of the mouse neocortex at around postnatal day 7. Netrin-4 was also found to be predominantly expressed in layer 4 of the sensory cortex and sensory thalamic nuclei. Cell surface binding assay showed that netrin-4 protein bound to UNC5D-expressing cells. An in vitro study further demonstrated that cell death of unc5d-expressing layer 4 cells was reduced by exogenous application of netrin-4 protein, whereas UNC5D is not sufficient to mediate the effect of netrin-4 in deep layer cells. Taken together, these results suggest that UNC5D is primarily expressed by layer 4 cells in the primary sensory areas of the developing neocortex and may mediate the effect of netrin-4 on cortical cell survival in a lamina-specific manner.
AB - The UNC-5 family of netrin receptors is known to regulate axon guidance, cell migration, and cell survival. We have previously demonstrated that unc5d, one of the UNC-5 family member genes, is specifically expressed in layer 4 of the developing rat neocortex (Zhong Y, Takemoto M, Fukuda T, Hattori Y, Murakami F, Nakajima D, Nakayama M, Yamamoto N. 2004. Identification of the genes that are expressed in the upper layers of the neocortex. Cereb Cortex. 14:1144-1152). However, the role of UNC5D in cortical development is still unknown. In this study, we revealed that unc5d was highly expressed in the primary sensory areas of the mouse neocortex at around postnatal day 7. Netrin-4 was also found to be predominantly expressed in layer 4 of the sensory cortex and sensory thalamic nuclei. Cell surface binding assay showed that netrin-4 protein bound to UNC5D-expressing cells. An in vitro study further demonstrated that cell death of unc5d-expressing layer 4 cells was reduced by exogenous application of netrin-4 protein, whereas UNC5D is not sufficient to mediate the effect of netrin-4 in deep layer cells. Taken together, these results suggest that UNC5D is primarily expressed by layer 4 cells in the primary sensory areas of the developing neocortex and may mediate the effect of netrin-4 on cortical cell survival in a lamina-specific manner.
KW - cortical development
KW - layer
KW - netrin-4
KW - thalamus
KW - unc5h4
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U2 - 10.1093/cercor/bhq265
DO - 10.1093/cercor/bhq265
M3 - Article
C2 - 21216843
AN - SCOPUS:79960640793
SN - 1047-3211
VL - 21
SP - 1925
EP - 1934
JO - Cerebral Cortex
JF - Cerebral Cortex
IS - 8
ER -