title: The mechanism of cytosine arabinoside toxicity on quiescent astrocytes in vitro appears to be analogous to in vivo brain injury.
abstract: Neuronal cultures derived from the septal diagonal band region of the embryonic rat brain and grown in a chemically defined medium contained a very small number of contaminating astroglial cells. During the first week in culture, these cells were well dispersed in the form of a single isolated cell with fine fibrous branched processes. Treatment with 4 microM cytosine arabinoside for 24 h failed to kill these astrocytes (most probably present in quiescent form), as judged by glutamine synthetase activity and glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive cell count. On the other hand, the exposure of cultures to cytosine arabinoside resulted in a marked increase in choline acetyltransferase enzyme activity. The overall results, together with our previous findings, are consistent with the proposal that a brief exposure to a relatively low concentration of cytosine arabinoside induces quiescent astrocytes to produce a large quantity of a neurotrophic factor that is involved in the regulation of cholinergic cells.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000378:metabolism*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism; D002799:Cholinergic Fibers / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D003561:Cytarabine / Q000633:toxicity*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005974:Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D003561:Cytarabine; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase; D005974:Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase