The aryl hydrocarbon receptor pathway defines the time frame for restorative neurogenesis

In contrast to mammals, zebrafish has high capacity to regenerate tissue architecture and replace lost neurons after traumatic brain injury. The ependymoglia cells react to the injury and generate new neurons, which migrate to the lessoned site and contribute to the tissue restoration. Understanding molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying this regenerative neurogenesis is the crucial step towards achieving regenerative therapies in the mammalian brain. In order to identify molecular pathways governing this mode of restorative neurogenesis, we analysed changes in the transcriptome of ependymoglia cells and their progeny during regeneration process and identified Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) to be involved in regulation of ependymoglia differentiation towards post-mitotic neurons.

26