Fig. 6: Proposed mechanism of action of lithium treatment in irradiated hNSPCs. | Translational Psychiatry

Fig. 6: Proposed mechanism of action of lithium treatment in irradiated hNSPCs.

From: Irradiation and lithium treatment alter the global DNA methylation pattern and gene expression underlying a shift from gliogenesis towards neurogenesis in human neural progenitors

Fig. 6

A key pathology of the irradiated hippocampus is a skewed developmental process that favors gliogenesis over neurogenesis. Post-irradiative lithium treatment led to increased demethylation of several genes related to a functional neurogenesis and negative control of gliogenesis. The promoter demethylation was also accompanied by transcriptional upregulation of developmentally important genes, refocusing this developmental equilibrium towards neurogenesis, such as GAD2, and away from gliogenesis, such as GREM1, encoding gremlin1, a BMP inhibitor. The selective mechanism of methylation alterations after IR + LiCl treatment could be controlled by TET3 and GADD45A, which were also found to be upregulated after irradiation and lithium treatment in neural progenitor cells compared to the control. Created with BioRender.com.

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