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Volume 17, Number 16,
Issue of August 15, 1997
pp. 6243-6255
Copyright ©1997 Society for Neuroscience
Nerve Terminal Withdrawal from Rat Neuromuscular Junctions
Induced by Neuregulin and Schwann Cells
Received April 8, 1997; revised June 6, 1997; accepted June 6, 1997.
Joshua T. Trachtenberg and
Wesley J. Thompson
Department of Zoology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin,
Texas 78712
Schwann cells (SCs) that cap neuromuscular junctions (nmjs) play
roles in guiding nerve terminal growth in paralyzed and partially denervated muscles; however, the role of these cells in the day-to-day maintenance of this synapse is obscure. Neuregulins, alternatively spliced ligands for several erbB receptor tyrosine kinases, are thought
to play important roles in cell-cell communication at the nmj,
affecting synapse-specific gene expression in muscle fibers and the
survival of terminal SCs during development. Here we show that
application of a soluble neuregulin isoform, glial growth factor II
(GGF2), to developing rat muscles alters terminal SCs, nerve terminals,
and muscle fibers. SCs extend processes and migrate from the synapse.
Nerve terminals retract from acetylcholine receptor-rich synaptic
sites, and their axons grow, in association with SCs, to the ends of
the muscle. These axons make effective synapses only after withdrawal
of GGF2. These synaptic alterations appear to be induced by the actions
of neuregulin on SCs, because SC transplants growing into contact with
synaptic sites also caused withdrawal of nerve terminal branches. These
results show that SCs can alter synaptic structure at the nmj and
implicate these cells in the maintenance of this synapse.
Key words:
Schwann cells;
neuregulin;
neuromuscular junction;
development;
axonal withdrawal;
synaptic stability.
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