title: Expression of cell-cycle-related proteins and excitoxicity.
abstract: Previous work from our laboratory has suggested the functional contribution of p53 to the cascade of events triggered by excitatory amino acids and leading to cell death in primary neurons. Here we show that this paradigm can be extended to cortical neurons treated with NMDA. We found that exposure of the cells to either 300 microM or 2 mM NMDA induced an enhancement of p53 protein levels which was already significant at 60 min after the lesion, while very low staining of the protein was observed in untreated cells. The effect was time- and concentration-dependent, reaching the maximal induction at 3 h. NMDA treatment also resulted in an increase of gadd45 protein levels which was evident in both treatment at 3 h, the time when p53 was maximally induced. Our data give further evidence suggesting that a repertoire of events typical of proliferating cells is activated in degenerating neurons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnologies, University of Brescia Medical School, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Uberti
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Memo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004249:DNA Damage; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005333:Fetus / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D051379:Mice; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000633:toxicity; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000378:metabolism; D000097642:GADD45 Proteins
chemical_list: D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D016202:N-Methylaspartate; D011506:Proteins; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; D000097642:GADD45 Proteins