Studies

Remyelination can occur naturally in demyelinating lesions, but often fails in human demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). The function of the innate immune system is essential for the regenerative response, but how exactly microglia and macrophages clear myelin debris after injury and tailor a specific regenerative response is unclear. Here, we asked whether pro-inflammatory microglial/macrophage activation is required for this process. We established a novel toxin-based spinal ...

To understand how cells communicate with each other, it is essential to define the cellular secretome, a collection of proteins including soluble secreted, unconventionally secreted and proteolytically-shed proteins. Quantitative methodologies to decipher the secretome are challenging, due to the requirement of large cell numbers and abundant serum proteins that interfere with the detection of low-abundant cellular secretome proteins. Here, we miniaturized secretome analysis by developing the ...

Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease is a rare neurodegenerative disorder mainly caused by autosomal recessive mutations in Npc1 which result in abnormal late endosomal/lysosomal lipid storage. Although microgliosis is one of the prominent pathological features, consequences of NPC1 loss on microglial function and disease outcome remain largely unknown. Here, we provide an in-depth characterization of microglial proteomic signatures and phenotypes in an NPC1-deficient (Npc1-/-) murine model. We ...

Description

Proteolytic ectodomain shedding of membrane proteins is a fundamental mechanism to control the communication between cells and their environment. A key protease for membrane protein shedding is ADAM17, which requires a non-proteolytic subunit, either inactive Rhomboid 1 (iRhom1) or iRhom2 for its activity. While iRhom1 and iRhom2 are coexpressed in most tissues and appear to have largely redundant functions, the brain is an organ with predominant expression of iRhom1. Yet, little is ...

After demyelinating injury of the central nervous system, resolution of the mounting acute innate inflammation is crucial for the initiation of a regenerative response. To identify factors in lesion recovery after demyelination injury, we used a toxin-induced model, in which a single dose of lysolecithin is injected into the corpus callosum to induce a focal demyelinating lesion. Afterwards, we investigated the proteome of demyelinating lesions at different time points post injection (dpi) in a ...