Pericyte prevents neuronal regeneration after spinal cord injury

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes continuous disability in the motor, sensory, and higher neuronal functions, which depends on insufficient neuronal regeneration spontaneously in the adult. The neuronal network regeneration is inhibited by the molecular expressions from the cells in the central nervous system (CNS). CNS contains many types of cells that control neuronal regeneration, and recently Type A-pericyte has been identified as the cell that forms a scar around the lesion after injury. Pericyte proliferation in response to injury is an essential process to create the inhibitory environment in the CNS, however, the molecular mechanism that regulates pericyte proliferation has not been elucidated. Previously, we focused on the role of the circulating factor that controls CNS regeneration, because circulating factors leak into the CNS around the lesion after that injury disrupts the vascular barrier. In this talk, I would like to introduce our recent findings that circulating factor promotes pericyte scar formation in mice after SCI.