| First Author | Liu K | Year | 2010 |
| Journal | Nat Neurosci | Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 9 | Pages | 1075-81 |
| PubMed ID | 20694004 | Mgi Jnum | J:165283 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4836789 | Doi | 10.1038/nn.2603 |
| Citation | Liu K, et al. (2010) PTEN deletion enhances the regenerative ability of adult corticospinal neurons. Nat Neurosci 13(9):1075-81 |
| abstractText | Despite the essential role of the corticospinal tract (CST) in controlling voluntary movements, successful regeneration of large numbers of injured CST axons beyond a spinal cord lesion has never been achieved. We found that PTEN/mTOR are critical for controlling the regenerative capacity of mouse corticospinal neurons. After development, the regrowth potential of CST axons was lost and this was accompanied by a downregulation of mTOR activity in corticospinal neurons. Axonal injury further diminished neuronal mTOR activity in these neurons. Forced upregulation of mTOR activity in corticospinal neurons by conditional deletion of Pten, a negative regulator of mTOR, enhanced compensatory sprouting of uninjured CST axons and enabled successful regeneration of a cohort of injured CST axons past a spinal cord lesion. Furthermore, these regenerating CST axons possessed the ability to reform synapses in spinal segments distal to the injury. Thus, modulating neuronal intrinsic PTEN/mTOR activity represents a potential therapeutic strategy for promoting axon regeneration and functional repair after adult spinal cord injury. |
