Figure 1.

Predicted difference in neuronal subtypes of reprogrammed neurons from reactive astrocytes by NeuroD1 and miRNAs in the injured spinal cord.

NeuroD1 is a glutamatergic lineage transcription factor. Persistent NeuroD1 expression elicits an instructive role in pushing reprogrammed neurons into glutamatergic neuronal subtype (A). However, miRNAs play a permissive role by inhibiting non-neuronal gene expression, and therefore are predicted to allow generation of distinct neuronal subtypes possibly influenced by regional cues (B).