Neuronal death in the dorsal root ganglion after sciatic nerve injury does not depend on sortilin

Injury to the sciatic nerve induces loss of sensory neurons in the affected dorsal root ganglia (DRGs). Previous studies have suggested the involvement of the neurotrophin receptors p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75(NTR)) and sortilin, proposing that sensory neuron subpopulations undergo proneurotrophin-induced apoptosis in a similar manner to what can be observed in the CNS following injury. To further investigate this hypothesis we induced sciatic nerve injury in sortilin-deficient mice, thereby preventing apoptotic signaling of proneurotrophins via the sortilin-p75(NTR) receptor complex. Using an unbiased stereological approach we found that loss of sortilin did not prevent the injury-induced loss of DRG neurons. This result demonstrates that previous findings linking p75(NTR) and proneurotrophins to loss of sensory neurons need to involve sortilin-independent pathways and suggests that proneurotrophins may elicit different functions in the CNS and PNS.