In the developing and adult brain, oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) are influenced by neuronal activity: they are involved in synaptic signaling with neurons, and their proliferation and differentiation into myelinating glia can be altered by transient changes in neuronal firing. An important question that has been unanswered is whether OPCs can discriminate different patterns of neuronal activity and respond to them in a distinct way. Here, we demonstrate in brain slices that the pattern of neuronal activity determines the functional changes triggered at synapses between axons and OPCs. Furthermore, we show that stimulation of the corpus callosum at different frequencies in vivo affects proliferation and differentiation of OPCs in a dissimilar way. Our findings suggest that neurons do not influence OPCs in “all-or-none” fashion but use their firing pattern to tune the response and behavior of these nonneuronal cells.

在发育中和成年的大脑中，少突胶质前体细胞（OPC）受神经元活动的影响：它们参与神经元的突触信号传导，并且神经元放电的瞬时变化可改变它们向髓鞘神经胶质细胞的增殖和分化。一个尚未解决的重要问题是，OPC是否可以区分神经活动的不同模式并以不同的方式对其做出反应。在这里，我们在脑切片中证明，神经元活动的模式决定了轴突和OPC之间突触触发的功能变化。此外，我们表明在体内不同频率刺激call体会以不同的方式影响OPC的增殖和分化。