Here we show that polydendrocytes participate in CNS repair following focal cerebral ischemia. We followed their fate after a permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) in adult NG2creBAC:ZEG double transgenic mice, in which enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) is expressed in polydendrocytes and their progeny.
We found that 3 days after MCAo the EGFP(+) cells markedly proliferate,. however, in later phases after MCAo they give rise to a subpopulation of reactive astrocytes and moreover, some EGFP(+) cells expressed doublecortin and displayed membrane properties typical for neural precursor cells, Taken together, our data indicate that polydendrocytes in the dorsal cortex display multipotent differentiation potential after focal ischemia.