title: The effect of thrombin on astrocyte stellation with regional specificity.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Korea.
authors.forename: Phil-Ok
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: Byoung-Il
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Gon-Sup
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Young S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Chung-Kil
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Won
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000242:Cyclic AMP; D013917:Thrombin