Interneurons migrate to the visual thalamus from germinal zones in early development, but the underlying mechanisms are not clear. Here, mice lacking retinal ganglion cells, which send inputs to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), exhibited a low number of LGN interneurons, and this was associated with low levels of fibroblast growth factor 15 (FGF15) in the LGN in development. Fgf15 deletion similarly reduced LGN interneuron number, suggesting that FGF15 acts as a cue in the migratory process. LGN FGF15 was expressed by astrocytes, indicating that retinal inputs regulate the migration via signalling to astrocytes.
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Su, J. et al. Retinal inputs signal astrocytes to recruit interneurons into visual thalamus. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1913053117 (2020)
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Yates, D. Astrocytic cueing of neuronal migration. Nat Rev Neurosci 21, 120 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0271-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0271-9
