Spinal Cord Injury Reveals Multilineage Differentiation of Ependymal Cells

Abstract

Spinal cord injury often results in permanent functional impairment. Neural stem cells present in the adult spinal cord can be expanded in vitro and improve recovery when transplanted to the injured spinal cord, demonstrating the presence of cells that can promote regeneration but that normally fail to do so efficiently. Using genetic fate mapping, we show that close to all in vitro neural stem cell potential in the adult spinal cord resides within the population of ependymal cells lining the central canal. These cells are recruited by spinal cord injury and produce not only scar-forming glial cells, but also, to a lesser degree, oligodendrocytes. Modulating the fate of ependymal progeny after spinal cord injury may offer an alternative to cell transplantation for cell replacement therapies in spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injuries occur in more than 30.000 individuals each year worldwide and result in significant morbidity, with patients requiring long physical and medical care. The recent identification of resident stem cells in the adult spinal cord has opened up for the possibility of pharmacological manipulation of these cells to produce cell types promoting recovery after injury. We have employed genetic tools to specifically address the identity and reaction to injury of a spinal cord subpopulation of cells known as ependymal cell. Genetic labeling of this putative stem cell population allows for the evaluation of stem cell activity in vitro and in vivo. We found that ependymal cells lining the central canal act as neural stem cells in vitro and contribute extensively to the glial scar in vivo. Interestingly, injury induces proliferation of ependymal cells and migration of ependyma-derived progeny towards the site of injury. Moreover, ependymal cell progeny differentiate and give rise to astrocytes as well as myelinating oligodendrocytes. In summary, our results point to ependymal cells as an attractive candidate population for non-invasive manipulation after injury.