Transcriptional Changes in Rat Dorsal Root Ganglia Neurons During Stretch-Mediated Axon Growth

The development of meter-long axons within the nervous system is a remarkable, yet unresolved biological process. The most widely studied aspects of neuronal growth focus on the extension and chemotropism of growth cones. However, over the course of organismal development, short axons elongate up to one meter in length with the systemic expansion of mitotic tissues. The preeminent regulatory mechanism for such synchronized growth between the nervous system and the tissues it spans, is the biomechanical stretch of axons, a known stimulus of axon growth. Here, we reveal the transcriptional profile of stretch-mediated axon growth as found using embryonic rat dorsal root ganglia neurons stretch-grown in vitro.