期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2016
卷号：113
期号：51
页码：14829-14834
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1614826113
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：SignificanceMyelin allows the rapid conduction of electrical signals and provides axons with metabolic support. It appeared relatively late in evolution in hinge-jawed vertebrates and concomitantly with the emergence of the androgen receptor (AR), hinting at a specific role for androgens in myelination. Here, we show that after demyelination of the central nervous system (CNS), the male gonad, testosterone, and AR favor astrocyte recruitment and myelin regeneration by oligodendrocytes. In their absence, astrocytes remain sparse and peripheral-type remyelination, classically associated with Schwann cells, is predominantly detected. These findings reveal a novel role of androgen signaling in CNS myelin formation and glial cell communication, with possible implications for demyelinating, psychiatric, and age-related disorders. Lost myelin can be replaced after injury or during demyelinating diseases in a regenerative process called remyelination. In the central nervous system (CNS), the myelin sheaths, which protect axons and allow the fast propagation of electrical impulses, are produced by oligodendrocytes. The abundance and widespread distribution of oligodendrocyte progenitors (OPs) within the adult CNS account for this remarkable regenerative potential. Here, we report a key role for the male gonad, testosterone, and androgen receptor (AR) in CNS remyelination. After lysolecithin-induced demyelination of the male mouse ventral spinal cord white matter, the recruitment of glial fibrillary acidic protein-expressing astrocytes was compromised in the absence of testes and testosterone signaling via AR. Concomitantly, the differentiation of OPs into oligodendrocytes forming myelin basic protein (MBP)+ and proteolipid protein-positive myelin was impaired. Instead, in the absence of astrocytes, axons were remyelinated by protein zero (P0)+ and peripheral myelin protein 22-kDa (PMP22)+ myelin, normally only produced by Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system. Thus, testosterone favors astrocyte recruitment and spontaneous oligodendrocyte-mediated remyelination. This finding may have important implications for demyelinating diseases, psychiatric disorders, and cognitive aging. The testosterone dependency of CNS oligodendrocyte remyelination may have roots in the evolutionary history of the AR, because the receptor has evolved from an ancestral 3-ketosteroid receptor through gene duplication at the time when myelin appeared in jawed vertebrates.
