Expression Profile Analysis of Rat Motoneurons During Myelination

Disorders that disrupt myelin during development or in adulthood, such as multiple sclerosis and peripheral neuropathies, lead to severe pathologies, illustrating myelin’s crucial role in normal neural functioning. However, although our understanding of Schwann cell and oligodendrocyte biology is increasing, the signals that emanate from axons and regulate myelination remain largely unknown. To identify the core components of the myelination process, we adopted a microarray analysis approach combined with laser capture microdissection of spinal motoneurons (MNs) during the myelinogenic phase of development. We isolated single MNs by LCM from the lumbar spinal cord of 1-day-old (during myelination) and 21-day-old (after completion of myelination) Wistar albino rats. 4 separate rat litters were used in the experiment, with animals from each litter divided into P1 and P21 experimental groups. This design resulted in four biological replicates for each age that were processed independently for microarray analysis using Affymetrix RAE230 2.0 genome arrays.