[Abstract Title]. - Society for Neuroscience

histochemistry, the present study first surveyed peripheral nerve, skeletal muscle as well as
various epithelial tissues of the rat for possible JN expression. Double immunofluorescence
confocal microscopy and immunoelectron microscopy were then employed to map the cellular
and subcellular localization of JN. Out of the peripheral tissues examined, only olfactory
epithelium showed prominent JN expression in the glia-like sustentacular cells and in the
epithelial cells of the ducts of Bowman‟s glands. Tips of the apical processes of the sustentacular
cells, in particular, were enriched with JN protein under the roots of sustentacular microvilli and
at the junctions of sustentacular cells with apical processes of olfactory receptor neurons. Except
for the root part, sustentacular microvilli themselves were mostly devoid of JN
immunoreactivity. JN distribution in olfactory epithelium differed from that of microtubuleassociated
protein 2 (a marker of neurons) or nestin, but overlapped with a zone of intense Factin
staining near olfactory epithelium mucous surface. Immunoreactivities for 2‟,-3‟-cyclic
nucleotide-3‟-phosphodiesterase and myelin basic protein were not detected in rat olfactory
epithelium. These results indicate that sustentacular cells are oligodendroglialike in olfactory
epithelium. The high levels of JN in the apical band of olfactory sustentacular cells conforms to
JN enrichment along the edges of CNS myelin sheaths such as in the juxtanodal and paranodal
terminal loops. Similar to functions of JN in oligodendroglial differentiation, CNS myelination
or myelin-axon interaction, the roles of JN in olfactory epithelium may involve maturation of
sustentacular cells, outgrowth or motility of sustentacular microvilli, as well as molecular
interaction of sustentacular cells with olfactory receptor neurons for olfactory signal transduction
at the mucous surface of olfactory epithelium.
Disclosures: W. Li, None; J. Tang, None; J.H. Tang, None; F. Liang, None.
Poster
241. Glial Neuronal Interactions
Time: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Program#/Poster#: 241.4/F10
Topic: B.11.b. Cell biology and signalling
Title: Mechanisms of myelin basic protein recruitment to the plasma membrane
Authors: S. NAWAZ 1 , *A. M. KIPPERT 2 , T. LANG 3 , K.-A. NAVE 1 , M. SIMONS 2,3 ;
1 MPI for experimental Med., Göttingen, Germany; 2 Univ. of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany;
3 MPI for biophysical Chem., Göttingen, Germany
Abstract: Oligodendrocytes are the myelinating glia of the central nervous system. One of the
major CNS myelin proteins is myelin basic protein (MBP). It is involved in the compaction of
the myelin sheath. Although it is essential for the formation of the myelin sheath, it is not known