Mechanisms of cell migration in the nervous system

And how is your doctor using this knowledge to direct your neurons to the correct locations? You say your doctor doesn't know anything about this or your recovery? Too bad, they are getting paid anyway.
http://jcb.rupress.org/content/202/5/725.full

1. Jonathan A. Cooper

+ Author Affiliations

1. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109

1. Correspondence to Jonathan A. Cooper: jcooper@fhcrc.org

Back to TopAbstract

Many neurons resemble other cells in developing embryos in migrating long distances before they differentiate. However, despite shared basic machinery, neurons differ from other migrating cells. Most dramatically, migrating neurons have a long and dynamic leading process, and may extend an axon from the rear while they migrate. Neurons must coordinate the extension and branching of their leading processes, cell movement with axon specification and extension, switching between actin and microtubule motors, and attachment and recycling of diverse adhesion proteins. New research is needed to fully understand how migration of such morphologically complicated cells is coordinated over space and time.

Nervous systems are the organs through which animals perceive, interpret, and respond to the world around them. They consist of specialized, electrically active cells connected together in networks. Essentially, all nervous systems develop by four main stages: the proliferation of progenitors in an epithelium, the specification of neurons and glia, the growth and guidance of axons and dendrites, and the development and refinement of electrical and chemical synapses. However, some more complex nervous systems, including those of vertebrates, have another stage in which newly specified neurons migrate before they differentiate and form synapses. Some migrations cover long distances—up to thousands of cell diameters—and follow complex routes, changing direction at landmarks along the way (a key to the major migratory routes, terminology, and abbreviations is provided in Box 1 and Fig. 1). Because they migrate, neurons from different proliferative zones, and correspondingly distinct lineages and genetic programs, are able to position close to each other and communicate, potentially increasing efficiency. In addition, different types of neurons arrive at a particular location at different times during development, so circuits are established in a specific order. For these reasons, it is generally thought that neuron migrations facilitate circuit formation and improve nervous system function, although this hypothesis has not been critically tested by the appropriate mutation studies.