The regeneration transcriptome of corticospinal neurons

In the present study, we identify transcriptional mechanisms associated with corticospinal regeneration. We took advantage of the ability of NPC grafts to support corticospinal regeneration, together with a genetic mouse model (Glt25d2-GFP-L10a mice, in which a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) codes for GFP-tagged polyribosomes in layer 5b cortical neurons) to selectively enrich actively translated mRNA pools from layer Vb cortical projection neurons containing corticospinal neurons (Doyle et al., Cell 2008). We examined the regeneration transcriptome of the corticospinal neuron triggered by growth-promoting neural progenitor cell grafts compared to ungrafted, lesioned controls. We utilized mice with layer 5 neuron specific expression of EGFP-L10a under the Glt25d2 promoter. We pooled 3 mice for mRNA harvesting per condition for each of 3 time points plus 3 mice for a MSC control-graft condition.