An O2-sensitive glomus cell-stem cell synapse induces carotid body growth in chronic hypoxia.
Summary Neural stem cells (NSCs) exist in germinal centers of the adult brain and in the carotid body (CB), an oxygen-sensing organ that grows under chronic hypoxemia. How stem cell lineage differentiation into mature glomus cells is coupled with changes in physiological demand is poorly understood. Here, we show that hypoxia does not affect CB NSC proliferation directly. Rather, mature glomus cells expressing endothelin-1, the O 2 -sensing elements in the CB that secrete neurotransmitters in response to hypoxia, establish abundant synaptic-like contacts with stem cells, which express endothelin receptors, and instruct their growth. Inhibition of glomus cell transmitter release or their sel…
Fusion of bone-marrow-derived cells with Purkinje neurons, cardiomyocytes and hepatocytes
Recent studies have suggested that bone marrow cells possess a broad differentiation potential, being able to form new liver cells, cardiomyocytes and neurons1,2. Several groups have attributed this apparent plasticity to ‘transdifferentiation’3,4,5. Others, however, have suggested that cell fusion could explain these results6,7,8,9. Using a simple method based on Cre/lox recombination to detect cell fusion events, we demonstrate that bone-marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) fuse spontaneously with neural progenitors in vitro. Furthermore, bone marrow transplantation demonstrates that BMDCs fuse in vivo with hepatocytes in liver, Purkinje neurons in the brain and cardiac muscle in the heart, resul…
Resistance of subventricular neural stem cells to chronic hypoxemia despite structural disorganization of the germinal center and impairment of neuronal and oligodendrocyte survival
Xavier d'Anglemont de Tassigny,1,* M Salomé Sirerol-Piquer,2,3,* Ulises Gómez-Pinedo,4 Ricardo Pardal,1 Sonia Bonilla,1 Vivian Capilla-Gonzalez,2 Ivette López-López,1 Francisco Javier De la Torre-Laviana,1 José Manuel García-Verdugo,2,3 José López-Barneo1,3 1Medical Physiology and Biophysics Department, Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS), Virgen del Rocío University Hospital/CSIC/University of Seville, Seville, Spain; 2Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; 3Network Center of Biomedical Research on Neurodegenerati…