Distributed throughout the brain are oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) capable of proliferating and differentiating into the oligodendrocytes that wrap around axons (myelination) thereby greatly increasing signal propagation in neural networks. OPCs are essential for axon myelination during brain development, can enhance myelination in response to neural network activity, and can remyelinate axons in response to injury or in diseases such as multiple sclerosis. In this episode I talk with Johns Hopkins Professor Dwight Bergles about his career and work that is identifying the molecular pathways that regulate the proliferation and differentiation of OPCs, their integration into brain circuits and their roles in neuroplasticity in health in disease. During the past quarter century Dwight and his lab members and collaborators made several major discoveries that revealed previously unknown capabilities and functions of OPCs including that they receive synaptic inputs from glutamatergic neurons and respond to neuronal network activity locally and at a distance. And beyond their role in myelination very recent brain-wide cellular and molecular mapping studies suggest an even broader repertoire of OPC functions in the brain throughout life.

LINKS

Bergles Laboratory: https://bergleslab.com/

Oligodendrocyte Development and Plasticity.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4743079/pdf/cshperspect-GLI-a020453.pdf

Glutamatergic synapses on oligodendrocyte precursor cells in the hippocampus.

file:///Users/markmattson/Downloads/35012083.pdf

Oligodendrocyte progenitors balance growth with self-repulsion to achieve homeostasis in the adult brain.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3807738/pdf/nihms-463905.pdf

Brain-wide mapping of oligodendrocyte organization, oligodendrogenesis, and myelin injury.

https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674%2826%2900112-1

Myelin is repaired by constitutive differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitors.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12997438/pdf/nihms-2139155.pdf