DLK is a MAPKKK family protein and plays an important role in axon injury response. It is retrogradely transported to neuron soma after injury and leads to both cell death and axon regeneration. However, the mechanism of cell fate decision induced by DLK is unknown. It is meaningful to understand the mechanism so that manipulation DLK could potentially improve neuronal survival as well as axon regeneration after injury. In this study, two CNS axon injury model, optic nerve crush and pre-OPN crush were applied to explore the role of DLK in RGC response to optic nerve injury. Pre-OPN crush showed less cell loss and DLK activation was weaker compared with optic nerve crush. Both virus and small molecule were utilized to modify the activation of DLK pathway to understand whether ac...[ Read more ]

DLK is a MAPKKK family protein and plays an important role in axon injury response. It is retrogradely transported to neuron soma after injury and leads to both cell death and axon regeneration. However, the mechanism of cell fate decision induced by DLK is unknown. It is meaningful to understand the mechanism so that manipulation DLK could potentially improve neuronal survival as well as axon regeneration after injury. In this study, two CNS axon injury model, optic nerve crush and pre-OPN crush were applied to explore the role of DLK in RGC response to optic nerve injury. Pre-OPN crush showed less cell loss and DLK activation was weaker compared with optic nerve crush. Both virus and small molecule were utilized to modify the activation of DLK pathway to understand whether activation time or extent is important for different response. Further experiments could be done in this field to find a method to improve axon regeneration while keep RGCs survive, which is a potential direction for therapy discovery.