ADAM17 is critical for multipolar exit and radial migration of neuronal intermediate progenitor cells in mice cerebral cortex

The radial migration of neuronal progenitor cells is critical for the development of cerebral cortex layers. They go through a critical step transforming from multipolar to bipolar before outward migration. A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease 17 (ADAM17) is a transmembrane protease which can process many substrates involved in cell-cell interaction, including Notch, ligands of EGFR, and some cell adhesion molecules. In this study, we used in utero electroporation to knock down or overexpress ADAM17 at embryonic day 14.5 (E14.5) in neuronal progenitor cells to examine the role of ADAM17 in cortical embryonic neurogenesis. Our results showed that the radial migration of ADAM17-knocked down cells were normal till E16.5 and reached the intermediate zone (IZ). Then most transfected cells stopped migration and stayed at the IZ to inner cortical plate (CP) layer at E18.5, and there was higher percentage of multipolar cells at IZ layer in the ADAM17-knocked down group compared to the cells in control group. Marker staining revealed that those ADAM17-knocked down cells differentiated normally from neural stem cells (NSCs) to neuronal intermediate progenitor cells (nIPCs) but did not differentiate into mature neurons. The migration and multipolar exit defects caused by ADAM17 knockdown could be partially rescued by over-expressing an shRNA resistant ADAM17, while overexpressing ADAM17 alone did not affect the radial migration. Taken together, our results showed for the first time that, ADAM17 is critical in regulating the multipolar-stage exit and radial migration of the nIPCs during telencephalon cortex development in mice.