Identifying genes involved in neuronal differentiation of oln-93 oligodendroglia cells.

Mature neurons do no undergo cell division and are hard to replace if damaged. Thus, it would be beneficial to understand the genetics behind neuronal differentiation and possibly one day manipulate the process. In this study, we used insertional mutagenesis to identify TSP-4, NZF-1, and Pgk-1 as potential regulators of neuronal differentiation. Here, we showed that oln-93 oligodendroglia cells which these genes were identified from displayed morphological changes towards neuron-like shapes. These cells also showed significant increase in expression of several neuron-specific markers such as MAP2, NeuroD1 and TuJ1. While little work is done on these genes and their relation to neuronal differentiation, we hope that future work can elucidate their role and mechanism in this process and possibly use them as targets for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases some day.Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science