title: Ganglioside GD3 is required for neurogenesis and long-term maintenance of neural stem cells in the postnatal mouse brain.
abstract: The maintenance of a neural stem cell (NSC) population in mammalian postnatal and adult life is crucial for continuous neurogenesis and neural repair. However, the molecular mechanism of how NSC populations are maintained remains unclear. Gangliosides are important cellular membrane components in the nervous system. We previously showed that ganglioside GD3 plays a crucial role in the maintenance of the self-renewal capacity of NSCs in vitro. Here, we investigated its role in postnatal and adult neurogenesis in GD3-synthase knock-out (GD3S-KO) and wild-type mice. GD3S-KO mice with deficiency in GD3 and the downstream b-series gangliosides showed a progressive loss of NSCs both at the SVZ and the DG of the hippocampus. The decrease of NSC populations in the GD3S-KO mice resulted in impaired neurogenesis at the granular cell layer of the olfactory bulb and the DG in the adult. In addition, defects of the self-renewal capacity and radial glia-like stem cell outgrowth of postnatal GD3S-KO NSCs could be rescued by restoration of GD3 expression in these cells. Our study demonstrates that the b-series gangliosides, especially GD3, play a crucial role in the long-term maintenance NSC populations in postnatal mouse brain. Moreover, the impaired neurogenesis in the adult GD3S-KO mice led to depression-like behaviors. Thus, our results provide convincing evidence linking b-series gangliosides deficiency and neurogenesis defects to behavioral deficits, and support a crucial role of gangliosides in the long-term maintenance of NSCs in adult mice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, Augusta, Georgia 30904.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, Medical College of Georgia.
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, College of Allied Health Science, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia 30912, and Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, Augusta, Georgia 30904.
authors.forename: Chandramohan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wakade
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Department of Neurology, Medical College of Georgia, and Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, Augusta, Georgia 30904 ryu@gru.edu.
authors.forename: Robert K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development*; D003863:Depression / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005727:Ganglia, Spinal / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D005732:Gangliosides / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D020547:Lateral Ventricles / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D005732:Gangliosides; C026226:ganglioside, GD3
keywords: EGFR; depression; ganglioside; genetic model; membrane microdomain; radial glial cell