UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Longitudinal Investigation of Brain and Spinal Cord Pericytes After Inducible PDGFRβ+ Cell Ablation in Adult Mice

Atak, Dila; Yildiz, Erdost; Ozkan, Esra; Yousefi, Mohammadreza; Ozkan, Ayse; Yilmaz, Aysu Bilge; Kizilirmak, Ali Burak; ... Vural, Atay; + view all (2025) Longitudinal Investigation of Brain and Spinal Cord Pericytes After Inducible PDGFRβ+ Cell Ablation in Adult Mice. Journal of Neurochemistry , 169 (3) , Article e70035. 10.1111/jnc.70035. Green open access

[thumbnail of Kanar_pericyte.pdf]
Preview
PDF
Kanar_pericyte.pdf - Published Version

Download (8MB) | Preview

Abstract

Central nervous system (CNS) pericytes play crucial roles in vascular development and blood–brain barrier maturation during prenatal development, as well as in regulating cerebral blood flow in adults. They have also been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous neurological disorders. However, the behavior of pericytes in the adult brain after injury remains poorly understood, partly due to limitations in existing pericyte ablation models. To investigate pericyte responses following acute ablation and characterize a novel rodent model for pericyte research, we developed a tamoxifen-inducible PDGFRβ<sup>+</sup> cell ablation model by crossing PDGFRβ-P2A-CreER<sup>T2</sup> and Rosa26-DTA176 transgenic mouse lines. Using this model, we studied the effects of different tamoxifen doses and conducted histological examinations 15 and 60 days post-injection to assess the impacts of PDGFRβ<sup>+</sup> cell ablation in both acute and chronic phases, respectively. Our results demonstrate that a low dose of tamoxifen effectively ablates PDGFRβ<sup>+</sup> cells of the CNS in mice without reducing survival or causing significant systemic side effects, such as weight loss. Additionally, we found that the extent of PDGFRβ<sup>+</sup> cell depletion varies between the cortex and the spinal cord, as well as between the gray and white matter regions of the spinal cord. Importantly, we observed that both pericyte coverage and numbers increased in the weeks following acute ablation, indicating the regenerative capacity of CNS pericytes in vivo. This study offers a valuable tool for future studies on the role of pericytes in neurological disorders by overcoming the limitations of constitutive pericyte ablation models and providing its longitudinal characterization in the CNS. (Figure presented.).

Type: Article
Title: Longitudinal Investigation of Brain and Spinal Cord Pericytes After Inducible PDGFRβ+ Cell Ablation in Adult Mice
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/jnc.70035
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/jnc.70035
Language: English
Additional information: © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Neurochemistry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society for Neurochemistry. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
Keywords: brain, cortex, inducible PDGFRβ+ cell ablation, regeneration | spinal cord, tamoxifen, transgenics
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10216071
Downloads since deposit
11Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item