Mechanisms of axonal degeneration in health and disease

In the developing peripheral nervous system, many neurons die shortly after their axons have reached their target fields. This neuronal elimination serves as a mean to achieve a precise match between the number of neurons and the target innervation requirements. In addition, this process ensures that misguided axons, which do not reach their appropriate targets, will be eliminated. The regulation of this process is based on the limited production of various neurotrophic factors, insufficient to sustain the entire neuronal population. Since this loss usually occurs after the axons have already fully extended, some kind of axonal disintegration must escort the death of the cell body.

The talk will describe our efforts to uncover the mechanisms of axonal elimination during this process, and their relevance to axonal degeneration in pathological condition.