Cross-talk between the epidermal growth factor-like repeats/fibronectin 6-8 repeats domains of Tenascin-R and microglia modulates neural stem/progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation.

Mounting evidence has demonstrated that the microenvironment of stem/progenitor cells plays an important role in their proliferation and commitment to their fate. However, it remains unclear how all elements, such as astrocytes, microglia, extracellular matrix molecules, soluble factors, and their cross-talk interactions in the microenvironments, affect neural stem/progenitor cell fate. This work explored the influences of cross-talk between Tenascin-R (TN-R) and microglia on neural stem/progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation. Our results show that microglia triggered by TN-R distinct domains EGF-like repeats (EGFL) and fibronectin 6-8 repeats (FN6-8) significantly enhanced the proliferation of neural stem/progenitor cells and also obviously induced the differentiation into neurons but not oligodendrocytes. Neurite processes of neurons generated from neural progenitor cells were promoted by both EGFL and FN6-8 domains-activated microglia. Microglia triggered by EGFL and FN6-8 secreted brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta); interestingly, FN6-8 could activate microglia to secrete nerve growth factor in addition to BDNF and TGF-beta, but EGFL domain could not. All these data implied that the cross-talk between TN-R distinct domains EGFL/FN6-8 and microglia promoted neural stem/progenitor cell proliferation and induced their differentiation into neurons.