PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lisi, Véronique
AU  - Singh, Bhagat
AU  - Giroux, Michel
AU  - Guzman, Elmer
AU  - Painter, Michio W
AU  - Cheng, Yung-Chih
AU  - Huebner, Eric
AU  - Coppola, Giovanni
AU  - Costigan, Michael
AU  - Woolf, Clifford J.
AU  - Kosik, Kenneth S
TI  - Enhanced neuronal regeneration in the CAST/Ei mouse strain is linked to expression of differentiation markers after injury
AID  - 10.1101/160366
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 160366
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/06/160366.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/06/160366.full
AB  - 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.