RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Macroglial Plasticity and the Origins of Reactive Astroglia in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis JF The Journal of Neuroscience JO J. Neurosci. FD Society for Neuroscience SP 11914 OP 11928 DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1759-11.2011 VO 31 IS 33 A1 Fuzheng Guo A1 Yoshiko Maeda A1 Joyce Ma A1 Monica Delgado A1 Jiho Sohn A1 Laird Miers A1 Emily Mills Ko A1 Peter Bannerman A1 Jie Xu A1 Yazhou Wang A1 Chengji Zhou A1 Hirohide Takebayashi A1 David Pleasure YR 2011 UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/33/11914.abstract AB Accumulations of hypertrophic, intensely glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive (GFAP+) astroglia, which also express immunoreactive nestin and vimentin, are prominent features of multiple sclerosis lesions. The issues of the cellular origin of hypertrophic GFAP+/vimentin+/nestin+ “reactive” astroglia and also the plasticities and lineage relationships among three macroglial progenitor populations—oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs), astrocytes and ependymal cells—during multiple sclerosis and other CNS diseases remain controversial. We used genetic fate-mappings with a battery of inducible Cre drivers (Olig2-Cre-ERT2, GFAP-Cre-ERT2, FoxJ1-Cre-ERT2 and Nestin-Cre-ERT2) to explore these issues in adult mice with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein peptide-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The proliferative rate of spinal cord OPCs rose fivefold above control levels during EAE, and numbers of oligodendroglia increased as well, but astrogenesis from OPCs was rare. Spinal cord ependymal cells, previously reported to be multipotent, did not augment their low proliferative rate, nor give rise to astroglia or OPCs. Instead, the hypertrophic, vimentin+/nestin+, reactive astroglia that accumulated in spinal cord in this multiple sclerosis model were derived by proliferation and phenotypic transformation of fibrous astroglia in white matter, and solely by phenotypic transformation of protoplasmic astroglia in gray matter. This comprehensive analysis of macroglial plasticity in EAE helps to clarify the origins of astrogliosis in CNS inflammatory demyelinative disorders.