title: Lipopolysaccharide-induced nitric oxide synthase activity in cultured cerebellar granule neurons.
abstract: We examined the inducible form of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activity in cerebellar primary cultures enriched with granule neurons. Treatment with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 24 h was performed in two different cultures in which the survival of neurons was controlled by the levels of extracellular K+. Treatment of the granule neurons with the contaminating non-neuronal cells (< 5%) in a high K+ (25 mM) -containing culture medium with LPS induced four-fold NOS activity compared to that of the control, and the induced NOS activity was calcium-independent. LPS did not induce the NOS activity at all in the contaminating non-neuronal cells alone which were obtained by eliminating all the granule neurons from the culture by lowering the K+ concentration (5 mM). We conclude that the LPS-activated granule neurons can express iNOS activity and that this induction is not attributable to the contaminating nonneuronal cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Chemistry, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Himi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Murota
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000494:pharmacology; D002478:Cells, Cultured / Q000187:drug effects; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000187:drug effects*; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000187:drug effects*; D011188:Potassium / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D011188:Potassium; D002118:Calcium