However, prenatal glucocorticoid treatment could be associated with adverse effects and long-term complications, so there is a need to understand the basic mechanisms of late-stage lung maturation and develop new targeted therapies.
Here, we investigated the role of miR-34a in neurogenesis and maturation of developing neurons and identified Doublecortin as a new miR-34a target.
Here, we investigated the functional effects of miR-34a in rat brain and demonstrated that miR-34a is involved in the control of adult neurogenesis and maturation of developing neurons both in vitro and in vivo.
The data analysis pipeline that we have established can thus be used to generate and test specific hypotheses about synapse growth and maturation in the developing neocortex in a high-throughput and statistically robust manner.
Young migrating or differentiating neurons were detected with antibodies against Doublecortin (DCX), a microtubule-associated protein present in migrating neuroblasts and during maturation of developing neurons [15], and NeuroD, a transcription factor regulating neuronal fate [16].
IL-6 is a potent growth and maturation factor for developing human plasma cells, both in vitro [54], [55] and in vivo (including pathogenic conditions [56], [57], [58], [59]), but has minimal capacity to directly induce plasma cell differentiation [54], [60].
The growth and maturation of the developing testis as well as the maintenance of spermatogenesis are regulated by several endocrine and paracrine factors.
In particular, we present evidence that miR-34a overexpression results in: (i) increased proliferation of precursor cells; (ii) inhibition of neurite branching and delayed maturation of developing neuronal cells; (iii) altered physiological features of mature neurons; (iv) improvement in behavioural outcomes.
We discuss how mechanisms of chromatin regulation help to orchestrate the transcriptional programs that underlie the maturation of developing neurons and the plasticity of adult neurons.
These morphological dendritic defects suggest the importance of VPS35/retromer in promoting CA1 dendritic growth or maturation in developing CA1 neurons, and reveal a role for VPS35 in keeping healthy dendritic spine structure, which is critical for synapse formation and function.
