Children's scientists discover fundamental protein instrumental to brain development and repair
Jul 8, 2007 - 4:00:00 AM
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Dr. Gallo and colleagues work used enhanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein and activity to clearly demonstrate the role that this molecule plays as a catalyst to the natural processes of proliferation and migration of progenitor cells, which are integral to white matter development and repair. By first inserting enhanced EGFR protein and showing enhanced myelination/remyelination, and then using an EGFR protein with reduced biological activity and showing the decrease in myelination/remyelination Dr. Gallo and colleagues demonstrate that EGFR protein is an essential ingredient and that its signaling is instrumental in progenitor cell proliferation, migration, and in myelination and functional repair of white matter.
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By Children's National Medical Center,
[RxPG] Washington, DCScientists at Childrens National Medical Center have demonstrated conclusively that a specific protein and its signaling activity are instrumental in myelination and remyelination, processes essential to the creation and repair of the brains white matter. This groundbreaking discovery in mouse models points the way to developing treatments or interventions to enhance healthy brain development and/or brain disease repair in children and adults. The paper will be published in the August issue of Nature Neuroscience.
By understanding the fundamental mechanisms of brain development, we get closer to finding clear instructions to repairing developmental brain disorders and injuries, said Vittorio Gallo, PhD, Director, Center for Neuroscience Research, Childrens Research Institute at Childrens National Medical Center.
Dr. Gallo and colleagues study used mouse models to identify an essential protein and its signaling activity in the processes of myelination and remyelination. These processes are relevant to white matter development and repair. When white matter is injured or defective, the essential functions of information relay are impaired. Underdeveloped white matter or white matter injuries are linked to conditions including mental retardation, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis.
Childrens National Medical Center is the ideal environment for complex research, said Dr. Gallo. We work collaboratively with research institutes around the world, and then we walk down the hall to confer with colleagues who are on the front line of direct clinical care. My colleagues in clinical research and care pioneered whole body cooling, which slows down brain damage underway in compromised newborns. Our breakthrough at the level of laboratory research will soon translate to the bedsides where they care for newborns.
If we can marry whole body cooling with new approaches that boost the activity of this essential protein, we may be able to slow down injury and enhance myelination, continued Dr. Gallo. Some day we may be able to repair brain damage and subsequent affects such as mental retardation, developmental disabilities or other disorders that result from incomplete myelination or white matter damage.
Myelination in humans begins in utero at around 5 months of gestation and continues throughout the first three years of life, but can be impaired for a number of reasons, most commonly intrauterine infection, reduced or interrupted blood flow (which carries oxygen and nutrients) to the forming infant brain, or perinatal injury. These conditions affect up to 30 percent of preterm babies, many with severe motor and cognitive deficits, such as in patients affected by cerebral palsy.
Remyelination is a natural attempt by the brain to repair damage of the white matter; however the brain does not have the ability to completely repair itself.
Dr. Gallo and colleagues work used enhanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein and activity to clearly demonstrate the role that this molecule plays as a catalyst to the natural processes of proliferation and migration of progenitor cells, which are integral to white matter development and repair. By first inserting enhanced EGFR protein and showing enhanced myelination/remyelination, and then using an EGFR protein with reduced biological activity and showing the decrease in myelination/remyelination Dr. Gallo and colleagues demonstrate that EGFR protein is an essential ingredient and that its signaling is instrumental in progenitor cell proliferation, migration, and in myelination and functional repair of white matter.
Dr. Gallos work reported in this paper specifically demonstrates the following:
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