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Published June 15, 2007 | Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Lens-derived Semaphorin3A regulates sensory innervation of the cornea

Abstract

The cornea, one of the most highly innervated tissues of the body, is innervated by trigeminal sensory afferents. During development, axons are initially repelled at the corneal margin, resulting in the formation of a circumferential nerve ring. The nature and source of guidance molecules that regulate this process remain a mystery. Here, we show that the lens, which immediately underlies the cornea, repels trigeminal axons in vivo and in vitro. Lens ablation results in premature, disorganized corneal innervation and disruption of the nerve ring and ventral plexus. We show that Semaphorin3A (Sema3A) is expressed in the lens epithelium and its receptor Neuropilin-1 (Npn1) is expressed in the trigeminal ganglion during cornea development. Inhibition of Sema3A signaling abrogates axon repulsion by the lens and cornea in vitro and phenocopies lens removal in vivo. These results demonstrate that lens-derived Sema3A mediates initial repulsion of trigeminal sensory axons from the cornea and is necessary for the proper formation of the nerve ring and positioning of the ventral plexus in the choroid fissure.

Additional Information

© 2007 Elsevier Inc. Received for publication 11 January 2007; revised 6 April 2007; accepted 11 April 2007. Available online 18 April 2007. We thank Drs. S. E. Fraser and L. S. Gammill for the helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported in part by a CALTECH Elizabeth Ross Fellowship and NIH K99/R00 grant EY018050 (to PYL) and NIH grant R01DE16459 to MBF.

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