title: Transcriptional profiling predicts overwhelming homology of Schwann cells, olfactory ensheathing cells, and Schwann cell-like glia.
abstract: Schwann cells (SCs), olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), and central nervous system Schwann cell-like glia (SG) represent a group of nerve growth factor receptor p75 (NGFR)-positive cells, originating from different tissues. Because of their pro-regenerative capacities, these cells are subjects in experimental transplantation-based therapies of spinal cord trauma. The objective of this study was to compare the transcriptomes of uninfected and canine distemper virus-infected OECs, SCs, SG and fibroblasts (FBs) derived from four beagle dogs and cultured under identical conditions in vitro, employing canine genome 2.0 arrays (Affymetrix). Here, we observed a complete lack of transcriptional differerences between OECs and SG, a high similarity of OECs/SG to SCs, and a marked difference of SCs and OECs/SG towards FBs. Differentially expressed genes possibly involved in the maintenance of cell type-specific identity included an up-regulation of HOXD8 and HOXC4 in SCs, and an up-regulation of CNTNAP2 and EFEMP1 in OECs/SG. We identified cell type-specific biomarkers employing supervised clustering with a K-nearest-neighbors algorithm and correlation-based feature selection. Thereby AQP1 and SCRG1 were predicted to be the most powerful biomarkers distinguishing SCs from OECs/SG. Immunofluorescence confirmed a higher expression of SCRG1 in OECs and SG, and conversely a higher expression of AQP1 in SCs in vitro. Furthermore, canine and murine olfactory nerves showed SCRG1-positive, AQP1-negative OECs and/or axons, whereas sciatic nerves displayed multifocal non-myelinated, AQP1-positive, SCRG1-negative cells. Conclusively, OECs/SG are suggested to be a uniform cell type differing only in the tissue of origin and highly related to SCs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany; Center for Systems Neuroscience, Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Reiner
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ulrich
authors.forename: Ilka
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Imbschweiler
authors.forename: Arno
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalkuhl
authors.forename: Annika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lehmbecker
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ziege
authors.forename: Kristel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kegler
authors.forename: Kathrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Deschl
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wewetzer
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Baumgärtner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure / Q000821:virology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004216:Distemper / Q000378:metabolism; D004217:Distemper Virus, Canine; D004285:Dogs; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure / Q000821:virology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D051379:Mice; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure / Q000821:virology; D009832:Olfactory Nerve / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure / Q000821:virology; D012583:Schwann Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure / Q000821:virology; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: aquaporin 1; biomarker; canine distemper virus; microarray; nerve growth factor receptor p75; stimulator of chondrogenesis 1