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The Journal of Neuroscience, May 11, 2005, 25(19):4879-4888; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0328-05.2005
Previous Article
Neurobiology of Disease
Truncated Prion Protein and Doppel Are Myelinotoxic in the Absence of Oligodendrocytic PrPC
Ivan Radovanovic, *
Nathalie Braun, *
Olivier T. Giger,
Kirsten Mertz,
Gino Miele,
Marco Prinz,
Beatriz Navarro, and
Adriano Aguzzi
Institute of Neuropathology, University Hospital of Zurich, CH-8091 Zurich, Switzerland
The cellular prion protein PrPC confers susceptibility to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, yet its normal function is unknown. Although PrPC-deficient mice develop and live normally, expression of amino proximally truncated PrPC ( PrP) or of its structural homolog Doppel (Dpl) causes cerebellar degeneration that is prevented by coexpression of full-length PrPC. We now report that mice expressing PrP or Dpl suffer from widespread leukoencephalopathy. Oligodendrocyte-specific expression of full-length PrPC under control of the myelin basic protein (MBP) promoter repressed leukoencephalopathy and vastly extended survival but did not prevent cerebellar granule cell (CGC) degeneration. Conversely, neuron-specific PrPC expression under control of the neuron-specific enolase (NSE) promoter antagonized CGC degeneration but not leukoencephalopathy. PrPC was found in purified myelin and in cultured oligodendrocytes of both wild-type and MBP-PrP transgenic mice but not in NSE-PrP mice. These results identify white-matter damage as an extraneuronal PrP-associated pathology and suggest a previously unrecognized role of PrPC in myelin maintenance.
Key words: cerebellum; spinal cord; prion protein; Doppel; leukoencephalopathy; neurodegeneration
Received Jan 24, 2005;
revised April 4, 2005;
accepted April 10, 2005.
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