Activated microglia stimulate transcriptional changes in primary oligodendrocytes via IL-1beta.

No therapy currently exists to repair demyelinated lesions in multiple sclerosis. However, the use of IgM antibodies may provide a valuable therapeutic avenue for evoking such repair. Unfortunately, the mechanism of immunoglobulin action in CNS repair is currently unknown but may depend upon complex interactions between multiple cell types rather than upon direct activation of a single cell type. Using rat mixed glial cultures containing oligodendrocytes, microglia, and astrocytes, we found that the Fc portion of human IgM shifts microglia to an activated phenotype, reduces glial proliferation, upregulates a variety of immediate early genes, including JunB, Egr-1, and c-Fos, and stimulates microglial production and release of IL-1beta. Microglia-derived IL-1beta consequently triggers transcriptional upregulation of immediate early genes such as c-Jun, Egr-1, and c-Fos in the mixed glial cultures, and stimulates the upregulation of late response genes such as lipocalin in purified oligodendrocytes. Treatment with an IL-1beta receptor antagonist abrogates the effects of Fcmu on glial proliferation and prevents the upregulation of lipocalin in response to Fcmu, but does not prevent Fcmu-mediated upregulation of IL-1beta, suggesting that IL-1beta mediates at least some of the downstream effects of Fcmu in mixed glial cultures. We hypothesize that Fcmu-stimulated IL-1beta-induced upregulation of immediate early and late response genes in oligodendrocytes may promote CNS repair.