Chicken Ovalbumin Upstream Promoter-Transcription Factor II (COUP-TFII) regulates growth and patterning of the postnatal mouse cerebellum

COUP-TFII (also known as Nr2f2), a member of the nuclear orphan receptor superfamily, is expressed in several regions of the central nervous system (CNS), including the ventral thalamus, hypothalamus, midbrain, pons, and spinal cord. To address the function of COUP-TFII in the CNS, we generated conditional COUP-TFII knockout mice using a tissue-specific NSE-Cre recombinase. Ablation of COUP-TFII in the brain resulted in malformation of the lobule VI in the cerebellum and a decrease in differentiation of cerebellar neurons and cerebellar growth. The decrease in cerebellar growth in NSECre/+/CIIF/F mice is due to reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis in granule cell precursors (GCPs). Additional studies demonstrated that insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) expression was reduced in the cerebellum of NSECre/+/CIIF/F mice, thereby leading to decreased Akt1 and GSK-3β activities, and the reduced expression of mTOR. Using ChIP assays, we demonstrated that COUP-TFII was recruited to the promoter region of IGF-1 in a Sp1-dependent manner. In addition, dendritic branching of Purkinje cells was decreased in the mutant mice. Thus, our results indicate that COUP-TFII regulates growth and maturation of the mouse postnatal cerebellum through modulation of IGF-1 expression.