title: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-18 modulate neuronal cell fate in embryonic neural progenitor culture.
abstract: Neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in developing and adult CNS are capable of giving rise to various neuronal and glial cell populations. Neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus has been found to be inhibited by a proinflammatory cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL-6), suggesting that activated microglia in the inflamed brain may control neurogenesis. Yet, little is known about the effect of microglia-derived factors on the cell fate of embryonic NPCs. In this study, we show that neurons with betaIII-tubulin immunoreactivity in the NPC culture were reduced by the condition media collected from microglia treated with endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS/M-CM). Treatment with pentoxifylline (PTX), an inhibitor for tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) secretion from LPS-activated microglia, blocked the reduction of betaIII-tubulin+ cells in NPC culture. Furthermore, treatment of NPCs with interleukin-18 (IL-18), a recently discovered proinflammatory cytokine, also decreased the number of betaIII-tubulin+ cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Surprisingly, we also observed that the remaining betaIII-tubulin+ cells in the LPS/M-CM-treated culture exhibited more branching neurites. Thus, the activated microglia-derived cytokines, TNF-alpha and IL-18, may either inhibit the neuronal differentiation or induce neuronal cell death in the NPC culture, whereas these cells may also produce factors to improve the neurite branching in the NPC culture.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, #1 Ta-Hsueh Rd., Tainan 70101, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Peng
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hsin-I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Shun-Fen
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Tzeng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D015153:Blotting, Western / Q000379:methods; D002452:Cell Count / Q000379:methods; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D020382:Interleukin-18 / Q000378:metabolism*; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology; D017628:Microglia / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D037342:Pertussis Toxin / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D014404:Tubulin / Q000378:metabolism; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D020382:Interleukin-18; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; C488416:Tubb3 protein, rat; D014404:Tubulin; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D037342:Pertussis Toxin