Induction of sodium channel clustering by oligodendrocytes

M. R. Kaplan, A. Meyer-Franke, S. Lambert, V. Bennett, I. D. Duncan, S. R. Levinson and B. A. Barres
Additional contact information
M. R. Kaplan: Stanford University School of Medicine
A. Meyer-Franke: Stanford University School of Medicine
S. Lambert: Worcester Foundation
V. Bennett: Duke University Medical Center
I. D. Duncan: University of Wisconsin, Madison, School of Veterinary Medicine
S. R. Levinson: School of Medicine
B. A. Barres: Stanford University School of Medicine

Nature, 1997, vol. 386, issue 6626, 724-728

Abstract: Abstract As oligodendrocytes wrap axons of the central nervous system (CNS) with insulating myelin sheaths, sodium channels that are initially continuously distributed along axons become segregated into regularly spaced gaps in the myelin called nodes of Ranvier1. It is not known whether the regular spacing of nodes results from regularly spaced glial contacts or is instead intrinsically specified by the axonal cytoskeleton. Contact with Schwann cells induces clustering of sodium channels along the axons of peripheral neurons in vitro and in vivo2–4. Similarly, it has been suggested that astrocyte contact induces clustering of sodium channels along CNS axons5,6. Here we show that oligodendrocytes are necessary for clustering of sodium channels in vitro and in vivo. The induction, but not the maintenance, of sodium-channel clustering along the axons of highly purified rat retinal ganglion cells in culture depends on a protein secreted by oligodendrocytes. Surprisingly, the oligodendrocyte-induced clusters are regularly spaced at the predicted interval in the absence of glial–axonal contact. Mutant rats that are deficient in oligodendrocytes develop few axonal sodium channel clusters in vivo. These results demonstrate a crucial role for oligodendrocytes in inducing clustering of sodium channels.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/386724a0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:386:y:1997:i:6626:d:10.1038_386724a0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/386724a0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().