title: Nestin regulates neural stem cell migration via controlling the cell contractility.
abstract: Neural stem cells (NSCs) migration is essential for neurogenesis and neuroregeneration after brain injury. Nestin, a widely used marker of NSCs, is expressed abundantly in several cancers, where it may correlate with tumor migration and invasion. However, it is not yet known whether nestin participates in NSC migration. Here, we show that nestin down-regulation significantly inhibits the migration and contraction of murine neural stem cells, but does not obviously influence the proliferation, filamentous actin (F-actin) content, distribution or focal adhesion assembly of these cells. Mechanistically, nestin knockdown was found to affect the phosphorylation state of myosin regulatory light chain (MRLC) and regulate the activity of myosin light chain kinase (MLCK). Co-immunoprecipitation experiments showed that it interacts with MLCK and MRLC. Together, our results indicate that nestin may increase NSC motility via elevating MLCK activity through direct binding and provide new insight into the roles of nestin in NSC migration and repair.
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Sunxing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China; The Biotherapy Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Panlong
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Guangzhou Women and Children⿿s Medical Centre, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Weihua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Aiping
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Muyun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China; The Biotherapy Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China; Department of Biochemistry, Zhongshan Medical School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Andy Peng
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: The Neurosurgical Research Institute, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Pharmaceutics University, Guangzhou, China. Electronic address: zhangw69@163.com.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, Key Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China; Department of Biochemistry, Zhongshan Medical School, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. Electronic address: liweiq6@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Weiqiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002460:Cell Line; D002465:Cell Movement; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D051379:Mice; D018994:Myosin Light Chains / Q000378:metabolism; D009219:Myosin-Light-Chain Kinase / Q000378:metabolism; D064231:Nestin / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation; D020741:rho GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018994:Myosin Light Chains; D064231:Nestin; D009219:Myosin-Light-Chain Kinase; D020741:rho GTP-Binding Proteins
keywords: Contraction; Migration; Myosin light chain kinase; Nestin; Neural stem cells