| First Author | McGregor CE | Year | 2019 |
| Journal | Neurorehabil Neural Repair | Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 6 | Pages | 407-418 |
| PubMed ID | 31068076 | Mgi Jnum | J:295796 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6454457 | Doi | 10.1177/1545968319846131 |
| Citation | McGregor CE, et al. (2019) The Val66Met BDNF Polymorphism and Peripheral Nerve Injury: Enhanced Regeneration in Mouse Met-Carriers Is Not Further Improved With Activity-Dependent Treatment. Neurorehabil Neural Repair 33(6):407-418 |
| abstractText | Activity-dependent treatments to enhance peripheral nerve regeneration after injury have shown great promise, and clinical trials implementing them have begun. Success of these treatments requires activity-dependent release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the bdnf gene known as Val66Met, which is found in nearly one third of the human population, results in defective activity-dependent BDNF secretion and could impact the effectiveness of these therapies. Here, we used a mouse model of this SNP to test the efficacy of treadmill exercise in enhancing axon regeneration in animals both heterozygous (V/M) and homozygous (M/M) for the SNP. Axon regeneration was studied 4 weeks after complete transection and repair of the sciatic nerve in both male and female animals, using both electrophysiological and histological outcome measures. Regeneration was enhanced significantly without treatment in V/M mice, compared with wild type (V/V) controls. Unlike V/V mice, treatment of both V/M and M/M mice with treadmill exercise did not result in enhanced regeneration. These results were recapitulated in vitro using dissociated neurons containing the light-sensitive cation channel, channelrhodopsin. Three days after plating, neurites of neurons from V/M and M/M mice were longer than those of V/V neurons. In neurons from V/V mice, but not those from V/M or M/M animals, longer neurites were found after optogenetic stimulation. Taken together, Met-carriers possess an intrinsically greater capacity to regenerate axons in peripheral nerves, but this cannot be enhanced further by activity-dependent treatments. |
