UMDNJ Research on Nervous System Development is Published in the April 2 Issue of The Journal of Neuroscience

PISCATAWAY – The findings of a study by researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School showing how neuronal connections are made appear in the April 2 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

Understanding the molecular pathways that control nervous system development could provide new insights into disorders that affect the wiring of the nervous system and could also prove useful for developing therapeutic agents to treat nerves damaged by injuries or disease, said William Wadsworth, Ph.D., the study’s principal investigator and professor of pathology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. 

Gauri V. Kulkarni, Ph.D., and Haichang Li, Ph.D., co-authored the article. They are researchers in Wadsworth’s laboratory.

The article is titled “RPM-1, a C. elegans protein that functions in presynaptic differentiation, negatively regulates axon outgrowth by controlling SAX-3/robo and UNC-5/UNC5 activity,” and may be viewed by visiting http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/28/14/3595.  It suggests that RPM-1 proteins, which are found in a range of organisms including humans and the C. elegans nematode worm, provide an important molecular link between different processes needed to wire the nervous system.

To control information-processing by the nervous system, an intricate network of connections between nerve cells (neurons) is made, Dr. Wadsworth explained. As the nervous system forms, neurons extend projections called axons to targets where synaptic connections are made.

“The guidance of axons to their targets and the building of synaptic connections between axons and their targets are often considered separate processes,” the authors report.  “The study showed that a protein already known to be required for building synaptic connections also controls axon guidance.”

One implication of this coordinated regulation is that the formation of a synapse could influence further connections made by the axon, Wadsworth said.

“For example, a ‘strong’ synaptic connection might shut down the axon guidance system and prevent the axons from migrating further,” he explained, “whereas a ‘weak’ connection might allow the axons to search further for more and stronger connections.”

The ability to refine patterns of synaptic connections is an important characteristic of nervous systems, Wadsworth added.

The project was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (an institute of the National Institutes of Health) and by a grant from the New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Research.

The Journal of Neuroscience is the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

To interview William Wadsworth, Ph.D., please contact Zenaida Mendez at (973) 972-5000.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,700 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and a school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.