Myelin inhibitors, including MAG, are major impediments to CNS regeneration. However, CNS axons of DRGs regenerate if the peripheral branch of these neurons is lesioned first. We show that 1 day post-peripheral-lesion, DRG-cAMP levels triple and MAG/myelin no longer inhibit growth, an effect that is PKA dependent. By 1 week post-lesion, DRG-cAMP returns to control, but growth on MAG/myelin improves and is now PKA independent. Inhibiting PKA in vivo blocks the post-lesion growth on MAG/myelin at 1 day and attenuates it at 1 week. Alone, injection of db-cAMP into the DRG mimics completely a conditioning lesion as DRGs grow on MAG/myelin, initially, in a PKA-dependent manner that becomes PKA independent. Importantly, DRG injection of db-cAMP results in extensive regeneration of dorsal column axons lesioned 1 week later. These results may be relevant to developing therapies for spinal cord injury.

MAG is a potent inhibitor of axonal regeneration. Here, inhibition by MAG, and myelin in general, is blocked if neurons are exposed to neurotrophins before encountering the inhibitor; priming cerebellar neurons with BDNF or GDNF, but not NGF, or priming DRG neurons with any of these neurotrophins blocks inhibition by MAG/myelin. Dibutyryl cAMP also overcomes inhibition by MAG/myelin, and cAMP is elevated by neurotrophins. A PKA inhibitor present during priming abrogates the block of inhibition. Finally, if neurons are exposed to MAG/myelin and neurotrophins simultaneously, but with the Gi protein inhibitor, inhibition is blocked. We suggest that priming neurons with particular neurotrophins elevates cAMP and activates PKA, which blocks subsequent inhibition of regeneration and that priming is required because MAG/myelin activates a Gi protein, which blocks increases in cAMP. This is important for encouraging axons to regrow in vivo.

Unlike neonatal axons, mammalian adult axons do not regenerate after injury. Likewise, myelin, a major factor in preventing regeneration in the adult, inhibits regeneration from older but not younger neurons. Identification of the molecular events responsible for this developmental loss of regenerative capacity is believed key to devising strategies to encourage regeneration in adults after injury. Here, we report that the endogenous levels of the cyclic nucleotide, cAMP, are dramatically higher in young neurons in which axonal growth is promoted both by myelin in general and by a specific myelin component, myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), than in the same types of neurons that, when older, are inhibited by myelin-MAG. Inhibiting a downstream effector of cAMP [protein kinase A (PKA)] prevents myelin-MAG promotion from young neurons, and elevating cAMP blocks myelin-MAG inhibition of neurite outgrowth in older neurons. Importantly, developmental plasticity of spinal tract axons in neonatal rat pups in vivo is dramatically reduced by inhibition of PKA. Thus, the switch from promotion to inhibition by myelin-MAG, which marks the developmental loss of regenerative capacity, is mediated by a developmentally regulated decrease in endogenous neuronal cAMP levels.