Disease relevance of cxcr4b

• Blocking the function of cxcr4b, a chemokine receptor specifically expressed in ganglion cells, suggests a role in ganglion cell survival [1].

High impact information on cxcr4b

• Knocking down SDF-1 or its receptor CXCR4 results in severe defects in PGC migration [2].
• A zebrafish homologue of the chemokine receptor Cxcr4 is a germ-cell guidance receptor [3].
• The chemokine SDF-1 and its receptor CXCR4 control cell migration in the immune and nervous systems [4].
• In the lateral mesoderm, cxcr4b transcripts appeared earlier than those of cxcr4a [5].
• The transcripts of cxcr4a were detected in interneurons and endoderm, whereas cxcr4b was specifically expressed in sensory neurons, motoneurons and cerebellum [5].

Biological context of cxcr4b

• We propose that SDF1/CXCR4-mediated cell migration is preferentially associated with movement along the anteroposterior axis of the animal [6].
• In mammals, a single cxcr4 gene is involved both in chemotaxis and cell proliferation and survival; we discuss in this study a possible functional division of the two cxcr4 zebrafish genes [7].
• Moreover, a remarkably small number of SDF1a-responsive cells are able to organize an entire cxcr4b mutant primordium to restore migration and organogenesis in the lateral line [8].
• SDF-1, the presumptive cognate ligand for Cxcr4, shows a similar loss-of-function phenotype and can recruit germ cells to ectopic sites in the embryo, thus identifying a vertebrate ligand-receptor pair guiding migratory germ cells at all stages of migration towards their target [3].

Regulatory relationships of cxcr4b

• We propose that polarized activation of the receptor CXCR4 leads to a rise in free calcium that in turn activates myosin contraction in the part of the cell responding to higher levels of the ligand SDF-1 [9].

References