title: Involvement of microglia-neuron interactions in the tumor necrosis factor-alpha release, microglial activation, and neurodegeneration induced by trimethyltin.
abstract: Trimethyltin (TMT) is a neurotoxicant known to induce early microglial activation. The present study was undertaken to investigate the role played by these microglial cells in the TMT-induced neurotoxicity. The effects of TMT were investigated in monolayer cultures of isolated microglia or in neuron-enriched cultures and in neuron-microglia and astrocyte-microglia cocultures. The end points used were morphological criteria; evaluation of cell death and cell proliferation; and measurements of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and nitric oxide (NO) release in culture supernatant. The results showed that, in cultures of microglia, TMT (10(-6) M) caused, after a 5-day treatment, an increased release of TNF-alpha, without affecting microglial shape or cell viability. When microglia were cocultured with astrocytes, TNF-alpha release was decreased to undetectable levels. In contrast, in neuron-microglia cocultures, TNF-alpha levels were found to increase at lower concentrations of TMT (i.e., 10(-8) M). Moreover, at 10(-6) M of TMT, microglia displayed further morphological activation, as suggested by process retraction and by decrease in cell size. No morphological activation was observed in cultures of isolated microglial cells and in astrocyte-microglia cocultures. With regard to neurons, 10(-6) M of TMT induced about 30% of cell death, when applied to neuron-enriched cultures, whereas close to 100% of neuronal death was observed in neuron-microglia cocultures. In conclusion, whereas astrocytes may rather dampen the microglial activation by decreasing microglial TNF-alpha production, neuronal-microglial interactions lead to enhanced microglial activation. This microglial activation, in turn, exacerbates the neurotoxic effects of TMT. TNF-alpha may play a major role in such cell-cell communications.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physiology, CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Eskes
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Juillerat-Jeanneret
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leuba
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Honegger
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Monnet-Tschudi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D017628:Microglia / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D014298:Trimethyltin Compounds / Q000633:toxicity*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014298:Trimethyltin Compounds; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; C046488:trimethyltin