title: The mode of spinal motor neurons degeneration in a model of slow glutamate excitotoxicity in vitro.
abstract: The defective glial and/or neuronal glutamate transport may, in chronic neurotoxicity, contribute to several neurodegenerative diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)--a progressive neurodegenerative disorder of lower and upper motor neurons (MNs). To determine the detailed ultrastructural characteristics of excitotoxic motor neurons neurodegeneration we used a model of slow excitotoxicity in vitro based on selective inhibition of glutamate uptake. The study was performed on organotypic cultures of the rat lumbar spinal cord subjected to various concentrations of glutamate uptake blockers: threohydroxyaspartate (THA) and L-trans-pyrrolidine-2, 4-dicarboxylate (PDC). The chronic inhibition of glutamate transport resulted in a dose-dependent slow neurodegeneration of spinal MNs consisting of necrotic, apoptotic and autophagic mode of cell death. There were some MNs that shared certain characteristics of a different type of cell injury. The results showed that a different mode of cell death in excitotoxic MNs degeneration may coexist resulting in apoptosis-necrosis and apoptosis-autophagocytosis continuum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Neuropathology, Medical Research Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. matyja@cmdik.pan.pl
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Matyja
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nagańska
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taraszewska
authors.forename: Janina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rafałowska
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D016923:Cell Death / Q000502:physiology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000494:pharmacology; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D051381:Rats; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists; D009498:Neurotoxins; D018698:Glutamic Acid