1. VEGF expression disparities in brainstem motor neurons of the SOD1 G93A ALS model: Correlations with neuronal vulnerability.
- Author
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Silva-Hucha S, Fernández de Sevilla ME, Humphreys KM, Benson FE, Franco JM, Pozo D, Pastor AM, and Morcuende S
- Subjects
- Animals, Humans, Mice, Disease Models, Animal, Mice, Transgenic, Superoxide Dismutase metabolism, Superoxide Dismutase genetics, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis metabolism, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis genetics, Brain Stem metabolism, Motor Neurons metabolism, Motor Neurons pathology, Superoxide Dismutase-1 genetics, Superoxide Dismutase-1 metabolism, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A metabolism, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A genetics
- Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare neuromuscular disease characterized by severe muscle weakness mainly due to degeneration and death of motor neurons. A peculiarity of the neurodegenerative processes is the variable susceptibility among distinct neuronal populations, exemplified by the contrasting resilience of motor neurons innervating the ocular motor system and the more vulnerable facial and hypoglossal motor neurons. The crucial role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as a neuroprotective factor in the nervous system is well-established since a deficit of VEGF has been related to motoneuronal degeneration. In this study, we investigated the survival of ocular, facial, and hypoglossal motor neurons utilizing the murine SOD1
G93A ALS model at various stages of the disease. Our primary objective was to determine whether the survival of the different brainstem motor neurons was linked to disparate VEGF expression levels in resilient and susceptible motor neurons throughout neurodegeneration. Our findings revealed a selective loss of motor neurons exclusively within the vulnerable nuclei. Furthermore, a significantly higher level of VEGF was detected in the more resistant motor neurons, the extraocular ones. We also examined whether TDP-43 dynamics in the brainstem motor neuron of SOD mice was altered. Our data suggests that the increased VEGF levels observed in extraocular motor neurons may potentially underlie their resistance during the neurodegenerative processes in ALS in a TDP-43-independent manner. Our work might help to better understand the underlying mechanisms of selective vulnerability of motor neurons in ALS., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Angel M Pastor reports financial support was provided by Government of Andalusia. Angel M Pastor reports financial support was provided by Ministry of Science Technology and Innovations. David Pozo reports financial support was provided by Ministry of Science Technology and Innovations. David Pozo reports financial support from the following foundations: CONTRA LA ELA (Reto Todos Unidos), Fundació Catalana d'ELA Miquel Valls, and Juntos Contra la ELA. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2024
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