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：2010
卷号：107
期号：8
页码：3817-3822
DOI：10.1073/pnas.0909276107
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Neurotrophin binding to the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) activates neuronal apoptosis following adult central nervous system injury, but the underlying cellular mechanisms remain poorly defined. In this study, we show that the proform of nerve growth factor (proNGF) induces death of retinal ganglion cells in adult rodents via a p75NTR-dependent signaling mechanism. Expression of p75NTR in the adult retina is confined to Muller glial cells; therefore we tested the hypothesis that proNGF activates a non-cell-autonomous signaling pathway to induce retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death. Consistent with this, we show that proNGF induced robust expression of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) in Muller cells and that genetic or biochemical ablation of TNF blocked proNGF-induced death of retinal neurons. Mice rendered null for p75NTR, its coreceptor sortilin, or the adaptor protein NRAGE were defective in proNGF-induced glial TNF production and did not undergo proNGF-induced retinal ganglion cell death. We conclude that proNGF activates a non-cell-autonomous signaling pathway that causes TNF-dependent death of retinal neurons in vivo.
