AUTHOR=Liu Ji-Wei , Li Han , Zhang Yang 

TITLE=Npas3 regulates stemness maintenance of radial glial cells and neuronal migration in the developing mouse cerebral cortex

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience

VOLUME=16

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncel.2022.865681

DOI=10.3389/fncel.2022.865681

ISSN=1662-5102

ABSTRACT=<p>The neuronal PAS domain 3 (NPAS3) is a member of the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) PAS family of transcription factors and is implicated in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. <italic>NPAS3</italic> is robustly expressed in the cortical ventricle zone (VZ), a transient proliferative zone containing progenitor cells, mainly radial glial cells, destined to give rise to cortical excitatory neurons. However, the role of <italic>NPAS3</italic> in corticogenesis remains largely unknown. In this study, we knocked down <italic>Npas3</italic> expression in the neural progenitor cells residing in the cortical VZ to investigate the role of <italic>Npas3</italic> in cerebral cortical development in mice. We demonstrated that <italic>Npas3</italic> knockdown profoundly impaired neuronal radial migration and changed the laminar cell fate of the cells detained in the deep cortical layers. Furthermore, the downregulation of <italic>Npas3</italic> led to the stemness maintenance of radial glial cells and increased the proliferation rate of neural progenitor cells residing in the VZ/subventricular zone (SVZ). These findings underline the function of <italic>Npas3</italic> in the development of the cerebral cortex and may shed light on the etiology of <italic>NPAS3</italic>-related disorders.</p>