Over-Expression of Ephrin-A5 in Mice Results in Decreasing the Size of Progenitor Pool through Inducing Apoptosis

Eph receptors and their ligands, ephrins, mediate cell-to-cell contacts in a specific brain region and their bidirectional signaling is implicated in the regulation of apoptosis during early brain development. In this report, we used the alpha(α)-Cre transgenic line to induce ephrin-A5 over-expression in the distal region of the neural retina. Using this double transgenic embryo, we show that the over-expression of ephrin-A5 was responsible for inducing massive apoptosis in both the nasal and temporal retinas. In addition, the number of differentiated retinal neurons with the exception of the bipolar neuron was significantly reduced, whereas the laminar organization of the mature retina remained intact. Consistent with this finding, an analysis of the mature retina revealed that the size of the whole retina— particularly the nasal and temporal regions—is markedly reduced. These results strongly suggest that the level of ephrin-A5 expression plays a role in the regulation of the size of the retinal progenitor pool in the neural retina.