Mechanisms of axon degeneration: from development to disease

Axon degeneration is an active, tightly controlled and versatile process of axon segment self-destruction. Although not involving cell death, it resembles apoptosis in its logics. It involves three distinct steps: induction of competence in specific neurons, triggering of degeneration at defined axon segments of competent neurons, and rapid fragmentation and removal of the segments. The mechanisms that initiate degeneration are specific to individual settings, but the final pathway of pruning is shared; it involves microtubule disassembly, axon swellings, axon fragmentation, and removal of the remnants by locally recruited phagocytes. The tight regulatory properties of axon degeneration distinguish it from passive loss phenomena, and confer significance to processes that involve it. Axon degeneration has prominent roles in development, upon lesions and in disease. In development, it couples the progressive specification of neurons and circuits to the removal of defined axon branches. Competence might involve transcriptional switches, and local triggering can involve axon guidance molecules and synaptic activity patterns. Lesion-induced Wallerian degeneration is inhibited in the presence of Wld(S) fusion protein in neurons; it involves early local, and later, distal degeneration. It has recently become clear that like in other settings, axon degeneration in disease is a rapid and specific process, which should not be confused with a variety of disease-related pathologies. Elucidating the specific mechanisms that initiate axon degeneration should open up new avenues to investigate principles of circuit assembly and plasticity, to uncover mechanisms of disease progression, and to identify ways of protecting synapses and axons in disease.