The neurotoxicant, cuprizone, retards the differentiation of oligodendrocytes in vitro.
The effects of oxalyldihydrazone (cuprizone) on weanling rodents provided an early protocol for toxic demyelination in vivo, in which degeneration of oligodendrocytes preceded disruption of the myelin sheath, and in which remyelination could take place. We administered cuprizone to oligodendrocyte-enriched glial-cell cultures and to mixed glial-cell cultures from neonatal rat brains. The cultures were treated with cuprizone for 1 h and allowed to continue differentiating on subsequent days. Treated cultures and respective control cultures were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde (w/v) and immunostained with double immunofluorescence. MAbO4 was used to mark precursors and mature oligodendrocytes, and anti-myelin basic protein (MBP) to mark mature oligodendrocytes (O4+/MBP+), as distinguished from precursors, which were O4+/MBP-. Cell counts suggested that cuprizone inhibited the maturation of oligodendrocytes without diminishing the numbers of precursors, and appeared to affect the mitochondria in those cells.
Cammer
W
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Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA.
D000165:Acridine Orange / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002452:Cell Count / Q000187:drug effects; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D004396:Coloring Agents; D003471:Cuprizone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D004676:Myelin Basic Protein / Q000096:biosynthesis; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000166:cytology; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013997:Time Factors
D004396:Coloring Agents; D004676:Myelin Basic Protein; C056258:N(10)-nonylacridine orange; D003471:Cuprizone; D000165:Acridine Orange