TY - JOUR T1 - Enhanced neuronal regeneration in the CAST/Ei mouse strain is linked to expression of differentiation markers after injury JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/160366 SP - 160366 AU - VĂ©ronique Lisi AU - Bhagat Singh AU - Michel Giroux AU - Elmer Guzman AU - Michio W Painter AU - Yung-Chih Cheng AU - Eric Huebner AU - Giovanni Coppola AU - Michael Costigan AU - Clifford J. Woolf AU - Kenneth S Kosik Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/06/160366.abstract N2 - Peripheral nerve regeneration after injury requires a broad program of transcriptional changes. We investigated the basis for the enhanced nerve regenerative capacity of the CAST/Ei mouse strain relative to C57BL/6 mice. RNA sequencing of dorsal root ganglia (DRG) showed a CAST/Ei specific upregulation of Ascl1 after injury. Ascl1 overexpression in C57BL/6 mice DRG neurons enhanced their neurite outgrowth. Ascl1 is regulated by miR-7048-3p, which is down-regulated in CAST/Ei mice. Inhibition of miR-7048-3p enhances neurite outgrowth. Following injury, CAST/Ei neurons largely retained their mature neuronal profile as determined by single cell RNAseq, whereas the C57BL/6 neurons acquired an immature profile. These findings suggest that one facet of the enhanced regenerative phenotype is preservation of neuronal identity in response to injury. ER -