Functional response to SDF1α through over-expression of CXCR4 on adult subventricular zone progenitor cells

The chemokine receptor CXCR4 and its ligand, stromal cell derived factor-1α (SDF1α) regulate neuroblast migration towards the ischemic boundary after stroke. Using loss- and gain-function, we investigated the biological effect of CXCR4/SDF1α on neural progenitor cells. Neural progenitor cells, from the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the adult rat, were transfected with rat CXCR4-pLEGFP-C1 and pSIREN-RetroQ-CXCR4-siRNA retroviral vectors. Migration assay analysis showed that inhibition of CXCR4 by siRNA significantly reduced cell migration compared to the empty vector, indicating that CXCR4 mediated neural progenitor cell motility. When neural progenitor cells were cultured in growth medium containing bFGF (20 ng/ml), over-expression of CXCR4 significantly reduced the cell proliferation as measured by the number of bromodeoxyuridine+ (BrdU+) cells (26.4%) compared with the number in the control group (54.0%). Addition of a high concentration of SDF1α (500 ng/ml) into the progenitor cells with over-expression of CXCR4 reversed the cell proliferation back to the control levels (57.6%). Immunostaining analysis showed that neither over-expression nor inhibition of CXCR4 altered the population of neurons and astrocytes, when neural progenitor cells were cultured in differentiation medium. These in vitro results suggest that CXCR4/SDF1α primarily regulates adult neural progenitor cell motility but not differentiation, while over-expression of CXCR4 in the absence of SDF1α decreases neural progenitor cell proliferation.