Transport and secretion of the wnt3 ligand by motor neuron-like cells and developing motor neurons
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Archivos
Fecha
2021-12
Profesor/a Guía
Facultad/escuela
Idioma
en
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Biomolecules
Nombre de Curso
Licencia CC
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Licencia CC
Resumen
The vertebrate neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is formed by a presynaptic motor nerve terminal and a postsynaptic muscle specialization. Cumulative evidence reveals that Wnt ligands secreted by the nerve terminal control crucial steps of NMJ synaptogenesis. For instance, the Wnt3 ligand is expressed by motor neurons at the time of NMJ formation and induces postsynaptic differentiation in recently formed muscle fibers. However, the behavior of presynaptic-derived Wnt ligands at the vertebrate NMJ has not been deeply analyzed. Here, we conducted overexpression experiments to study the expression, distribution, secretion, and function of Wnt3 by transfection of the motor neuron-like NSC-34 cell line and by in ovo electroporation of chick motor neurons. Our findings reveal that Wnt3 is transported along motor axons in vivo following a vesicular-like pattern and reaches the NMJ area. In vitro, we found that endogenous Wnt3 expression increases as the differentiation of NSC-34 cells proceeds. Although NSC-34 cells overexpressing Wnt3 do not modify their morphological differentiation towards a neuronal phenotype, they effectively induce acetylcholine receptor clustering on co-cultured myotubes. These findings support the notion that presynaptic Wnt3 is transported and secreted by motor neurons to induce postsynaptic differentiation in nascent NMJs. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Notas
Indexación: Scopus
Palabras clave
Motor neuron, Neuromuscular junction, Wnt
Citación
Biomolecules Volume 11, Issue 12December 2021 Article number 1898
DOI
10.3390/biom11121898