The effect of thrombin on astrocyte stellation with regional specificity.
In this study, we have examined the possible existence of astrocyte regional heterogeneity in thrombin effect on astrocyte stellation. Neonatal astrocytes were cultured for 2 weeks from six different regions of the neonatal rat brain, including the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, brainstem, midbrain, hypothalamus and cerebellum. Culture medium was changed to DMEM containing 8-CPT-cyclic AMP (cAMP) or isoproterenol plus various concentrations of thrombin for 2 hr. Thrombin effectively blocked both cAMP- and isoproterenol-induced cell stellation in a dose-dependent manner in all regional astrocytes except cerebellar astrocytes. RT-PCR analysis showed that thrombin receptor mRNA was expressed in all regional astrocytes, suggesting that cerebellar astrocytes may maintain a unique signaling pathway downstream of the thrombin receptor.
Koh
Phil-Ok
PO
Institute of Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Korea.
Kang
Byoung-Il
BI
Kim
Gon-Sup
GS
Oh
Young S
YS
Won
Chung-Kil
CK
D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D048430:Cell Shape / Q000187:drug effects*; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry*; D000242:Cyclic AMP / Q000378:metabolism; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013917:Thrombin / Q000633:toxicity*
D003470:Culture Media; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000242:Cyclic AMP; D013917:Thrombin