Neurotrophin 3 And Its High Affinity Receptor Trkc In The Neural Stem Cell Differentiation In Function And Mechanism

Erk1/2 but not PI3K Pathway Is Required for Neurotrophin 3--Induced Oligodendrocyte Differentiation of Postnatal Neural Stem Cells Xinhua Hu (Neuroscience) Directed by Prof. Linyin Feng Using cultured postnatal hippocampal stem cells (NSCs) as a model, wedemonstrated that NT3-stimulation causes NSCs to differentiate into OLPs through anErk1/2-dependent pathway without influencing the proliferation and survival of OLPs.NT3 induced phosphorylation of Erk1/2 or Akt and increase of expression of Olig-1, atranscriptional factor known to participate in oligodendrocyte development.Application of U0126, a specific inhibitor of MEK1/2 which are upstream to Erk1/2,suppressed the expression of Olig-1 and prevented NSC differentiation into OLPs inresponse to NT3 stimulation. However, administration of LY294002, an inhibitor ofPI3K which are upstream to Akt, did not affect the effect of NT3 on the expressionof Olig-1 and on NSC differentiation into OLPs. These results suggest that NT3induce NSCs to differentiate into OLPs by enhancing the expression of Olig-1through an Erk1/2-dependent pathway.