Transcriptional profiling predicts overwhelming homology of Schwann cells, olfactory ensheathing cells, and Schwann cell-like glia

Glia. 2014 Oct;62(10):1559-81. doi: 10.1002/glia.22700. Epub 2014 May 30.

Abstract

Schwann cells (SCs), olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), and central nervous system Schwann cell-like glia (SG) represent a group of nerve growth factor receptor p75 (NGFR)-positive cells, originating from different tissues. Because of their pro-regenerative capacities, these cells are subjects in experimental transplantation-based therapies of spinal cord trauma. The objective of this study was to compare the transcriptomes of uninfected and canine distemper virus-infected OECs, SCs, SG and fibroblasts (FBs) derived from four beagle dogs and cultured under identical conditions in vitro, employing canine genome 2.0 arrays (Affymetrix). Here, we observed a complete lack of transcriptional differerences between OECs and SG, a high similarity of OECs/SG to SCs, and a marked difference of SCs and OECs/SG towards FBs. Differentially expressed genes possibly involved in the maintenance of cell type-specific identity included an up-regulation of HOXD8 and HOXC4 in SCs, and an up-regulation of CNTNAP2 and EFEMP1 in OECs/SG. We identified cell type-specific biomarkers employing supervised clustering with a K-nearest-neighbors algorithm and correlation-based feature selection. Thereby AQP1 and SCRG1 were predicted to be the most powerful biomarkers distinguishing SCs from OECs/SG. Immunofluorescence confirmed a higher expression of SCRG1 in OECs and SG, and conversely a higher expression of AQP1 in SCs in vitro. Furthermore, canine and murine olfactory nerves showed SCRG1-positive, AQP1-negative OECs and/or axons, whereas sciatic nerves displayed multifocal non-myelinated, AQP1-positive, SCRG1-negative cells. Conclusively, OECs/SG are suggested to be a uniform cell type differing only in the tissue of origin and highly related to SCs.

Keywords: aquaporin 1; biomarker; canine distemper virus; microarray; nerve growth factor receptor p75; stimulator of chondrogenesis 1.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Axons / metabolism
  • Axons / ultrastructure
  • Axons / virology
  • Biomarkers / metabolism
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Distemper / metabolism
  • Distemper Virus, Canine
  • Dogs
  • Fibroblasts / metabolism
  • Fibroblasts / ultrastructure
  • Fibroblasts / virology
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Mice
  • Microarray Analysis
  • Microscopy, Electron
  • Neuroglia / metabolism*
  • Neuroglia / ultrastructure
  • Neuroglia / virology
  • Olfactory Nerve / metabolism*
  • Olfactory Nerve / ultrastructure
  • Olfactory Nerve / virology
  • Schwann Cells / metabolism*
  • Schwann Cells / ultrastructure
  • Schwann Cells / virology
  • Sciatic Nerve / metabolism
  • Sciatic Nerve / ultrastructure
  • Transcription, Genetic

Substances

  • Biomarkers