, 2001 and Yang et al., 2001). However, agrin and MuSK do not directly interact (Glass et al., 1996); rather, MuSK activation by agrin Bortezomib concentration requires LRP4, a member of the LDL receptor family (Kim et al., 2008 and Zhang et al., 2008). LRP4 is a single-transmembrane protein that possesses a large extracellular domain with multiple LDLR repeats, EGF-like and β-propeller repeats; a transmembrane domain; and a short C-terminal region without an identifiable catalytic motif (Johnson et al., 2005, Lu et al., 2007, Tian et al., 2006 and Yamaguchi et al., 2006). Mice lacking LRP4 die at birth and do not form the NMJ, indicating a critical role in
NMJ formation (Weatherbee et al., 2006). Evidence suggests that agrin binds to LRP4 and is necessary and sufficient to enable agrin signaling (Kim et al., 2008 and Zhang et al., 2008). It also interacts with MuSK and this interaction is increased in response to agrin. Recent studies of the crystal structure of an agrin-LRP4 complex suggest
that monomeric agrin MDV3100 molecular weight interacts with LRP4 to form a binary complex, which promotes the synergistic formation of a tetramer crucial for agrin-induced AChR clustering (Zong et al., 2012). These observations support a working hypothesis that agrin binds to LRP4 in muscle cells, which acts in cis to interact and activate MuSK to initiate signaling necessary for postsynaptic differentiation ( Kim et al., 2008, Wu et al., 2010, Zhang et al., 2008 and Zhang et al., 2011). To further investigate how LRP4 regulates
NMJ formation, we generated and characterized mutant mice that lack LRP4 specifically in muscle cells or motoneurons or both cells. Remarkably, HSA-LRP4−/− mice, in which LRP4 is specifically ablated in muscle cells, Ketanserin survived at birth and formed primitive NMJs, unlike LRP4 null mutant mice, suggesting that a role of LRP4 in motoneurons or other cells in NMJ formation in the absence of muscle LRP4. Severe morphological and functional deficits were observed in motor nerve terminals in HSA-LRP4−/− mice, indicating a critical role of muscle LRP4 for presynaptic differentiation. These hypotheses were further tested in mutant mice that lacked LRP4 in motoneurons or in both muscle fibers and motoneurons. Results revealed distinct functions of LRP4 in muscle fibers and in motoneurons in NMJ formation and maintenance and suggest that LRP4 of motoneurons was able to serve as agrin’s receptor in trans to stimulate MuSK-dependent AChR clustering. Genetic rescues demonstrated that LRP4 in muscle cells is sufficient to initiate signaling for NMJ formation (data not shown) (Gomez and Burden, 2011). To further investigate the role of muscle LRP4, we generated LRP4f/f mice (see Experimental Procedures and Figure S1A available online for details) and crossed them with HSA-Cre mice, which express the Cre gene under the control of HSA promoter. Cre expression in this line is active at embryonic day (E) 9.