title: Cell size control and a cell-intrinsic maturation program in proliferating oligodendrocyte precursor cells.
abstract: We have used clonal analysis and time-lapse video recording to study the proliferative behavior of purified oligodendrocyte precursor cells isolated from the perinatal rat optic nerve growing in serum-free cultures. First, we show that the cell cycle time of precursor cells decreases with increasing concentrations of PDGF, the main mitogen for these cells, suggesting that PDGF levels may regulate the cell cycle time during development. Second, we show that precursor cells isolated from embryonic day 18 (E18) nerves differ from precursor cells isolated from postnatal day 7 (P7) or P14 nerves in a number of ways: they have a simpler morphology, and they divide faster and longer before they stop dividing and differentiate into postmitotic oligodendrocytes. Third, we show that purified E18 precursor cells proliferating in culture progressively change their properties to resemble postnatal cells, suggesting that progressive maturation is an intrinsic property of the precursors. Finally, we show that precursor cells, especially mature ones, sometimes divide unequally, such that one daughter cell is larger than the other; in each of these cases the larger daughter cell divides well before the smaller one, suggesting that the precursor cells, just like single-celled eucaryotes, have to reach a threshold size before they can divide. These and other findings raise the possibility that such stochastic unequal divisions, rather than the stochastic events occurring in G1 proposed by "transition probability" models, may explain the random variability of cell cycle times seen within clonal cell lines in culture.
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Council Developmental Neurobiology Programme, Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, and the Biology Department, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: F B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Raff
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D048429:Cell Size / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D016922:Cellular Senescence / Q000502:physiology; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005333:Fetus / Q000166:cytology; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects; D009900:Optic Nerve / Q000166:cytology*; D010982:Platelet-Derived Growth Factor / Q000494:pharmacology; D011153:Population; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects; D013963:Thyroid Hormones / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D010982:Platelet-Derived Growth Factor; D013963:Thyroid Hormones