Induction of polysialic acid-neural cell adhesion molecule in surviving motoneurons of transgenic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mice

The highly polysialylated neural cell adhesion molecule (PSA-NCAM) is recog nized as a marker of neurogenesis or neural plasticity in adult nervous sys tem. PSA-NCAM expression was examined in the spinal cord of transgenic mice harboring a mutant Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene. Immunohistochem istry showed a progressive expression of PSA-NCAM in surviving motoneurons of spinal ventral horns from an early and presymptomatic stage (25 weeks) b efore significant loss of ventral horn neurons, while no detectable PSA-NCA M in the ventral horn of non-transgenic littermates during the ageing proce ss. The present data suggest that a specific expression of PSA-NCAM may be involved in the survival of spinal motoneurons under pathological condition s such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.