The soft mechanical signature of glial scars in the central nervous system

Sheridan, Graham K.; Moeendarbary, Emad; Weber, Isabell P.; Koser, David E.; Soleman, Sara; Haenzi, Barbara; Bradbury, Elizabeth J.; Fawcett, James; Franze, Kristian

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2017. Injury to the central nervous system (CNS) alters the molecular and cellular composition of neural tissue and leads to glial scarring, which inhibits the regrowth of damaged axons. Mammalian glial scars supposedly form a chemical and mechanical barrier to neuronal regeneration. While tremendous effort has been devoted to identifying molecular characteristics of the scar, very little is known about its mechanical properties. Here we characterize spatiotemporal changes of the elastic stiffness of the injured rat neocortex and spinal cord at 1.5 and three weeks post-injury using atomic force microscopy. In contrast to scars in other mammalian tissues, CNS tissue significantly softens after injury. Expression levels of glial intermediate filaments (GFAP, vimentin) and extracellular matrix components (laminin, collagen IV) correlate with tissue softening. As tissue stiffness is a regulator of neuronal growth, our results may help to understand why mammalian neurons do not regenerate after injury.

Citation

Sheridan, G. K., Moeendarbary, E., Weber, I. P., Koser, D. E., Soleman, S., Haenzi, B., …Franze, K. (2017). The soft mechanical signature of glial scars in the central nervous system. Nature Communications, 8(1), Article 14787. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14787

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 31, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Mar 20, 2017
• Publication Date: Mar 20, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 22, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 18, 2019
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Electronic ISSN: 2041-1723
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 14787
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14787
• Keywords: General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; General Physics and Astronomy; General Chemistry
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2919717
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14787
• Additional Information: Received: 29 June 2016; Accepted: 31 January 2017; First Online: 20 March 2017; : The authors declare no competing financial interests.