title: Expression of neurocan after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion in adult rat brain.
abstract: Neurocan is one of the major chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans in the nervous tissues. The expression and proteolytic cleavage of neurocan are developmentally regulated in the normal rat brain, and the full-length neurocan is detected in juvenile brains but not in normal adult brains. Recently, some studies showed that the full-length neurocan was detectable even in the adult brain when it was exposed to mechanical incision or epileptic stimulation. In the present study, we demonstrated by Western blot analysis that the full-length neurocan transiently appeared in the peri-ischemic region of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) in adult rat with a peak level at 4 days after tMCAO. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that a clear positive signal of neurocan was observed 4 days after tMCAO in the peri-ischemic region of cerebral cortex and caudate, where cells strongly positive in GFAP expression were also distributed. These results indicate that accumulation of the full-length neurocan produced by reactive astrocytes may be one of the processes for tissue repair and reconstruction of neural networks after focal brain ischemia as well.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry, Okayama University, 2-5-1 Shikata-cho, Okayama 700-8558, Japan.
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Deguchi
authors.forename: Mikiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takaishi
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Atsuhiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oohira
authors.forename: Shoko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagotani
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Guang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Isao
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nagano
authors.forename: Mikio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shoji
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Nam-Ho
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Huh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D015153:Blotting, Western; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D011508:Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycans / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D002809:Chondroitin Sulfates / Q000378:metabolism; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D020244:Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000378:metabolism*; D037181:Lectins, C-Type; D008297:Male; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000378:metabolism; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D058580:Neurocan; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D011508:Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycans; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; D037181:Lectins, C-Type; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D058580:Neurocan; C076817:NCAN protein, human; D002809:Chondroitin Sulfates