You are encouraged to attend the defence. The details of the defence and how to attend are included below: 

DATE: 30 July 2024

TIME: 9:00 AM (PT)

DEFENCE MODE: Hybrid

In-Person Attendance: Senate Chambers, UNBC Prince George Campus 

Virtual Attendance: Zoom

LINK TO JOIN: 

Time: Jul 30, 2024 09:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Please contact the Office of Graduate Administration for information regarding remote attendance for online defences.

To ensure the defence proceeds with no interruptions, please mute your audio and video on entry and do not inadvertently share your screen. The meeting will be locked to entry 5 minutes after it begins: ensure you are on time. 

THESIS ENTITLED: CHARACTERIZATION OF OLIGODENDROCYTE-DERIVED EXTRACELLULAR VESICLES ACROSS CELL DIFFERENTIATION

ABSTRACT: Oligodendrocytes (OLs) are the myelinating glia of the central nervous system (CNS), and their dysfunction is a hallmark of several neurodegenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis. Intercellular communication pathways between OLs and other cell types in the CNS is critical for the proper formation and maintenance of the myelin sheath. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a heterogeneous population of secreted membrane vesicles that differ in biogenesis, cargo, and biological functions they exhibit on target cells. One relatively unexplored avenue is the autocrine regulation of myelination mediated by EVs, and given their variety in cargo, potentially they could be involved in this process. However, very little is known about the molecular cargo of OL-derived EVs and nothing is known about how OL-EV cargo changes throughout cell differentiation. This study aims to determine how the molecular composition and functional effects of EVs change over OL cell development using the CG4-Ol cell line. Relative to TSG101, the constitutive secretion of EVs containing the tetraspanin markers CD44, CD63 and CD81 remain consistent across cell differentiation. On the other hand, the expression of CD9 increased suggesting a different population of exosomes and/or microvesicles are secreted from mature OLs. These EVs also had an increase in the cell signaling protein 14-3-3. Treatment of CG4 cells with OL-derived EV isolated at different stages resulted in no difference in genes associated with progenitor state (Ki67 and Pdgfra) and of the myelin genes, a significant increase (p<0.05) in relative Mog mRNA expression was observed in samples treated with supernatant collected from D0 and D6. Data presented in this thesis, for the first time, characterizes OL derived EVs isolated across cell differentiation and assessed their ability to act as autocrine factors on OL proliferation and differentiation.

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP: 

Chair: Dr. Annie Duchesne, University of Northern British Columbia 

Examining Committee Members: 

Supervisor: Dr. Kendra Furber, University of Northern British Columbia 

Committee Member: Dr. Andrea Gorrell, University of Northern British Columbia 

Committee Member: Dr. Stephen Rader, University of Northern British Columbia 

External Examiner: Dr. Sean Maurice, University of Northern British Columbia