At concentrations present in the environment, each of three dissimilar toxic agents can seize control of a signaling pathway that regulates developing cells in the brain and spinal cord, researchers report. They suggest that scientists might use the pathway to predict the toxicology of a diverse range of chemicals.
Mark Noble of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and his colleagues focused on a pathway that controls the development of cells destined to become oligodendrocytes. Those mature cells produce the material that insulates nerve fibers.